Editor’s note: Although this video may be unintentionally goofy, fireworks safety is a serious matter. Please heed the advice of the CPSC Chairman and use extreme caution with even the smallest of fireworks.Â
Although the Fourth of July has come and gone, it’s never too late for a fireworks safety video. Especially a fireworks safety video that features a series of explosive mannequin annihilations that would make Ramsay Bolton rethink his stable of hungry dogs as his go-to strategy for making a point.
The video comes via the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and features CPSC Chairman Elliot F. Kaye talking about the myriad ways fireworks can cause serious injury or even death.
“Unfortunately,” Kaye says, “the injuries [from fireworks] in particular, which are around 12,000 [a year], are the highest in 15 years, and we’re still seeing about a dozen deaths every year.”
Kaye goes on to talk about other serious incidents and issues surrounding fireworks, including the horrific hand injury that Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul suffered in 2015, as well as the subtle yet real dangers of sparklers—they burn at over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and are not safe for children.
After Kaye’s introduction, the video quickly takes a turn toward lighting little mannequin dresses on fire, shooting mannequins directly in their mannequin eyes with whistling rockets, blowing mannequin limbs off, decapitating mannequin heads, and—for some reason—straight up exploding one watermelon after another.
Even though it’s quite entertaining to watch these mannequins and watermelons get what they most definitely don’t deserve (to the point where maybe blowing up big fruit should be a national pastime?), the point of the video is still about safety. So please please please be safe, and let professionals handle the fireworks. Or even better: check out these cosmic “fireworks” that will blow you away metaphorically!
What do you think of this CPSC video? Is this a safety lesson done right, or did J. Walter Weatherman do it better? Let us know in the comments section below!
