Lesson Learned: Freak fireworks accident leaves victim burned

SHEFFIELD LAKE, OH (WOIO)

A Sheffield Lake man is recovering after a freak fireworks accident.

"It ain't no joke. I'm very lucky for not losing my hands or my face or my life."

A 4th of July weekend celebration at Matt Tursivio's Lorain home turned out to be a real blast.

"My cousin's husband said hey the fireworks are in the box. I looked down and it went boom," said Matt Tursivio's.

Matt Tursivio says he was handing a lit sparkler to a niece and that a piece of it apparently fell into a box full of fireworks which caught fire. It exploded and it really messed him up. He burned his hands, arms and several places on the right side of his body Friday night.

"I'm missing a lot of skin here, a lot of skin down here. This is all fried. I've got a gigantic blister right under here. It's all blistered through here. I've got it on my leg down there and on the side of my toe. Nothing really happened that much to the face. There's a little discoloration. It singed by hair," said Matt Tursivio's.

"The box was right here when it went off it cracked the ground," said Matt Tursivio.

The ground is still littered with pieces and parts of fireworks.

"The blast was so big that it blew my pack of cigarettes up on top of the shed," said Matt Tursivio's.

Matt goes back to the doctors Tuesday to see how bad his burns really are.

"I've got to clean them thoroughly every day. It's the most painful thing in the world to take a shower and have water hitting this. I just want to scream as hard and as loud as I can," said Matt Tursivio.

The 23-year old says he has learned a lesson that he'll remember the rest of his life.

"If you're going to play with fireworks better pray to God nothing happens to you cause it happened to me and I thought I knew what I was doing," said Matt Tursivio.

He was taken to EMH Amherst Hospital where he was treated and released.

Tursivio has been charged with illegal discharge of fireworks.