Stamford Resident Severely Injured In Fireworks Incident: Police

STAMFORD, CT — An incident involving fireworks at Scalzi Park in Stamford left a resident with possibly "life-threatening injuries" Wednesday evening, according to police.

Assistant Chief Thomas Wuennemann said officers were at the park for an unrelated call when they heard a loud explosion. As an officer made his way over to the park's basketball courts, he heard a second loud explosion in the area.

Wuennemann said the sound was "a larger boom" than that of a normal firework. (To sign up for Stamford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

When the officer arrived at the courts, a group of people were frantically running around and waving the officer over to an area where a 39-year-old Stamford resident was laying face down, Wuennemann said.

"Apparently what happened was he was bending over to light a firework," Wuennemann said, "and the explosion caused severe injuries to his hand."

Wuennemann said the injuries were described to him as life-threatening. He also said he did not know what type of firework the man lit off.

As officers waited for medics to arrive, they quickly applied tourniquets to the man's hands, which were bleeding heavily. Wuennemann said the man's hands were so severely injured that officers had to apply a second tourniquet to one of his arms.

Medics arrived shortly after and took the man to Stamford Hospital, however he was later transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital due to the severity of his injuries, Wuennemann said.

According to the Stamford Advocate, the man had some of his fingers blown off in the accident, however Wuennemann said he was not sure if that was the case.

"If the tourniquets were not applied, there's a possibility this man could have bled out," Wuennemann said." Paramedics did respond quickly, but luckily the officers were on the scene even quicker."

Wuennemann said this year has seen an increased number of residents using fireworks.

"I don't know if it's because more people are home because of [the coronavirus], but we seem to be responding to a lot more complaints," Wuennemann said. "They can be very dangerous."

The assistant chief also stressed the need for residents to use extreme caution when using legal fireworks, especially with the Fourth of July holiday approaching this weekend.

"[Fireworks] generate an intense amount of heat," Wuennemann said, "and they should always be used under supervision."