With the Fourth of July just around the corner, doctors at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington are putting parents on alert: The hospital has already treated 11 patients for fireworks-related injuries in 2026 and is gearing up to treat the approximately 55 people who annually roll through its doors over this one weekend.
Emergency room doctors warn that fireworks can lead to devastating injuries, including burns, lost fingers, and life-altering trauma. Among those 11 patients were eight with hand injuries or injuries involving the hands, three with eye injuries, and several with multiple injuries or injuries to other body parts. Hospital officials warn that over the holiday weekend, Teen boys are at particularly high risk of fireworks injuries.
“We’re going to see a lot of people who completely changed their lives because they made one simple, bad decision and now either they’ve lost a hand, they’ve lost their eyes, they’ve lost another appendage, or worse,” Dr. Arvin Akhavan, an emergency medicine physician at UW Medicine, said in a warning to parents.
Dr. Chelsea Boe, an orthopedic surgeon at UW Medicine, added: “Fireworks are powerful explosives that can cause devastating damage to hands and other parts of the body in a split second.”
“The injuries themselves are blast injuries,” Boe added. “So, it’s a huge amount of force that tends to have an explosive impact on the hand. So, they cause fractures, dislocations, which means that the bones come out of joint, they come out of place.”
Before this big holiday weekend, consider sharing the video below with your kids, especially teenage boys, who are at high risk of injury. In it, Drs. Akhavan and Boe make a strong case for avoiding personal fireworks this year.
According to Boe, that is only foolproof way of avoiding fireworks injuries. But, if you do light fireworks, do so from a safe distance and don’t light them in your hands.
A better choice: Head to a professional fireworks show. Check out Seattle’s Child’s list of July 4th fun around the greater Seattle area, including parades, fun runs, carnivals, and fireworks shows.
