 July 4th is such a special time of the year in our country. We celebrate our nation's birthday. It's a time when families come together, we celebrate the greatness of our country. But it's also a time when we can be injured and hurt as a result of fireworks. So we want Americans to celebrate safely. Be careful when you use fireworks and enjoy this 4th of July. In fact, a sparkler burns at about 2,000 degrees and of all the injuries we see, sparklers account for the highest rate of injuries. Consumer fireworks are the ones you can go in and buy legally. There are still illegal fireworks that consumers should never go anywhere near. The commercial fireworks should be left to the professionals. I can't emphasize that enough. They're so powerful and they're so dangerous. They should be left to the professionals. Consumer fireworks can be dangerous as well. And so understanding those dangers is part of our message today. And consumers can go into a store and buy them. That's a good thing. But they need to understand the dangers and the hazards related to those fireworks. So we talk about firework safety at this time of the year because in our statistics it shows that 70% of the injuries occur around the four-week period, around the 4th of July. So now's the time to be focusing on celebrating safely. So the reports show that in 2017 there were eight deaths as a result of fireworks and then there were 12,900 injuries as a result of the use of fireworks. I decided I wanted to launch a mortar shell style firework that you might buy in a fireworks stand. I put the mortar shell actually inside the tube, made sure that it was all the way at the bottom. I lit the fuse and then I decided to hold the fireworks above my head. The mortar shell then exploded inside of the tube instead of launching out of the tube. When the mortar shell exploded, I have a scar in this hand and I have a scar here and literally what happened is my hands folded over backwards. So off of my left hand I lost my pinky, I lost my ring finger, I lost the tip of my middle finger and I lost my thumb. On my right hand I lost my index finger, the tip of my middle finger and severely damaged the tendons in my thumb. The doctors at the time didn't think that they were going to be able to save my thumb that they thought that most likely they would have to amputate it but they were able to save it, thankfully. These were legally purchased fireworks. I had used them in the past and I had plenty of experience with them for years and years of shooting them and had never had anything go wrong until this one exploded inside the tube, it was detonated in my hands. The biggest thing I would like to get across to everybody is that things don't always go as we plan. Fireworks, mortar shells are very dangerous. People die using them, people get hurt using them, people lose fingers using them and it changes your life forever. So I would say leave the mortar shells to the pros and leave them on the ground if you're going to use them. In 2017, eight deaths were reported linked to fireworks, with the age of the victims between 4 and 57 years old. In addition, almost 13,000 people suffered injuries. Most of the injuries were caused by the stars or the light from the mortar. There were burns, vision loss and even extreme loss. In average, about 280 people get to emergencies every day, around the period of July 4. That's why it's very important and it's the best option not to use any device at home. You have to leave the pyrotechnics in the hands of the professionals. People choose to use a device, an artificial fire, the first thing they should do is check if they're legal in the area where they live. In addition, it should never be given any device to small children because this can be very dangerous. By turning on the devices, you have to do it one by one and go back immediately after turning them on. If a device didn't turn on the first one, you should never try to turn them on again. This can also be very dangerous. And you always have to have water in your hand in case of an emergency.