It's a mid-summer tradition: hitting the road to visit family and friends, cooling off in a local lake — and getting hurt by Fourth of July fireworks gone awry.
This week, three people employed as pyrotechnic professionals were among the five injured during various shows, including one man who sustained traumatic injuries.
But with the holiday falling during the middle of the week, the roads and waterways were less deadly, officials said.
Tuesday night in Cumming, Forsyth County fire crews were already on hand at the county fairgrounds in case of any pop-up fires or medical emergencies, Capt. Jason Shivers told the AJC. As storms moved through the area, the annual fireworks were delayed before the show began.
Then, the unthinkable happened, though the audience probably didn't know at the time, Shivers said. A former volunteer firefighter now working for a pyrotechnic company was seriously burned.
"He was immediately adjacent to an explosion when it occurred," Shivers told the AJC. "My guys saw it happen."
The firefighters were able to give immediate attention to the man, who was later transported to Grady Memorial Hospital.
"He had traumatic upper body and upper extremity injuries," Shivers said.
The man, whose name was not released, is expected to survive, Shivers said.
In Villa Rica, two men on a pontoon boat on private Legion Lake were setting off mortars and fireworks Wednesday night when an explosion threw them both into the water.
"The cloud was real high, fire was about about six foot high and it was 6 to 7 feet wide," Jim Gaines, a witness, told Channel 2 Action News.
Neither Clyde Holmes nor Brian Singleton were seriously hurt, but Singleton was taken to Grady for treatment of minor burns.
And at Woodstock's fireworks show, the licensed company contracted to set off the pyrotechnics had a close-to-ground detonation that injured two employees, neither seriously, Brittany Duncan, spokeswoman for Woodstock police, told the AJC.
One man was transported to a hospital for treatment, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Duncan said. He was later reported to be in stable condition. The fireworks were halted temporarily, sending some of the crowd home early. They resumed around 10:30 p.m.
Only one fatal wreck was reported on state roads during a 30-hour period beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday and ending at midnight Wednesday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
With the mid-week holiday, the Fourth of July was not the usual four-day weekend for many this year. In 2011, 13 people died on state roads during the Fourth of July holiday period.
No one died on Georgia's lakes on the Fourth, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said. Two people were cited on Lake Lanier for BUI, or boating under the influence, the DNR said.
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