Man killed after trying to launch firework from top of his head

Maine state police say a man celebrating the Fourth of July died when he tried to launch a firework off the top of his head.

Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine department of public safety, says 22-year-old Devon Staples of Calais had been setting off fireworks with friends on Saturday night in the backyard of a friend’s home.



He says Staples placed a fireworks mortar tube on his head and set it off, injuring his head. He died instantly. Police say the friends had been drinking.

McCausland says Staples’ death marks Maine’s first fireworks fatality since the state legalised fireworks several years ago. Calais is in eastern Maine, on the Canadian border near New Brunswick.