Paraplegic man's leg blown off by firework hit neighbour's house

A paraplegic man’s leg was blown off as he sat in his wheelchair setting off explosives on the Fourth of July. The man, 21, of Hazel Park was one of many people setting off fireworks and other explosives in the 500 block of East Hayes at about 10 p.m. “I believe he had been lighting fireworks on his lap then setting them down on the ground before they went off,” said Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner. “He lit one device that then slipped between his legs and went off.”

The force of the explosion severed the man’s left leg just below the knee and blew it about 50 feet across the street where it hit a neighbour’s house. Barner said there were many beverage bottles at the scene but it is unclear whether alcohol was a factor in the accidental dismemberment. “There was debris everywhere, including flesh and bone,” he said.



Police and paramedics were called to the scene to find the man fading in and out of consciousness from loss of blood. Across the street, officers found the man’s left foot with several inches of leg bone still attached. “That was recovered and sent along with the man to an area hospital,” Barner said.

The man was in stable condition on Thursday at an undisclosed hospital, but has permanently lost the lower part of his left leg, Barner added. Police said they are still investigating details of the explosion and are unsure what kind of fireworks or explosives the Hazel Park man was using. “We recovered just a piece of the firework and it looks as though it was a long tube, like a quarter stick of dynamite,” Barner said. “It was probably not legal to begin with.”