A New York man was arrested by an arson bomb squad for giving his 11-year-old son a firework that set two houses on fire, according to authorities.
According to a press release from the Nassau County Police Department, officers responded around 8:50 a.m. on the 4th of July to reports of a house fire in Levittown, New York.
Police determined that a 33-year-old father gave his 11-year-old son a firework and instructed him to light it. The explosive allegedly malfunctioned and soared into a nearby shed, which caused it to go up in flames.
The blaze in Long Island quickly spread to the defendant's home and then to a neighbor's house.
A single mother renting part of the first home to catch fire was reportedly forced to flee for her life from the burning house.
The Wantagh Fire Department responded and was able to extinguish the fires. However, both homes suffered extensive damage. No injuries were reported.
The Nassau County’s Arson Bomb Squad was also called to the scene and arrested Karamjit Singh without incident.
Singh was charged with second-degree arson, fourth-degree reckless endangerment, unlawfully selling of fireworks to someone under 18, unlawfully possessing fireworks, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Singh was released from jail without bail on Friday after pleading not guilty at his arraignment.
Singh's son was allegedly released to a family member.
Nassau County Fire Marshals launched an investigation into the fiery fireworks accident.
In nearby Suffolk County, a 21-year-old man reportedly severed three fingers on his left hand, damaged two fingers, and suffered burns on his leg in a fireworks accident on July 4th.
A 66-year-old Long Island man from Brentwood lost a hand and several fingers of his second hand after a fireworks explosion on Saturday night, according to WNBC.
As Blaze News previously reported, a South Carolina man was killed after putting a lit firework on top of his head while "showboating" during a 4th of July neighborhood block party. Video caught the last moments of the 41-year-old man's life as he was dancing in an Uncle Sam costume before his tragic, sudden death.
Blaze News also reported on a fatal fireworks accident on Independence Day in Tennessee. A 35-year-old man suffered a large chest wound and died after a firework exploded in his hands.
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Scads of people around the nation are likley to enjoy dazzling fireworks displays later this week as they celebrate Independence Day, but in an opinion piece posted by the New York Times, contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl suggested that people should give up the American tradition.
"The conflation of selfishness with patriotism is the thing I have the hardest time accepting about our political era. Maybe we have the right to eat a hamburger or drive the biggest truck on the market or fire off bottle rockets deep into the night on the Fourth of July, but it doesn’t make us good Americans to do such things. How can it possibly be 'American' to look at the damage that fireworks can cause — to the atmosphere, to forests, to wildlife, to our own beloved pets, to ourselves — and shrug?" Renkl wrote.
'We can eat more vegetables and less animal protein.'
She pointed out that the lound noises from fireworks frighten animals, like pet dogs, and can cause fires.
"We have no real way of knowing how many wild animals suffer because the patterns of their lives are disrupted with no warning every year on a night in early July," Renkl wrote. "And all that's on top of the dangers posed by fireworks debris, which can be toxic if ingested, or the risk of setting off a wildfire in parched summertime vegetation."
"It would be so easy to find a new way to celebrate the founding of a nation. So easy, at the very least, to limit fireworks to public celebrations meant to bring communities together. When those communities use low-noise fireworks, as well, they limit the stress on people and animals, and they mitigate some of the dangers to local wildlife," she asserted.
Renkl's piece also seemed to advocate for people to eat less meat and to set their thermostats to higher temperatures in the summer and lower temperatures in the winter.
"Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss on a planet with eight billion human residents won’t be simple," she wrote. "But there are easy things we can do at no real cost to ourselves. We can eat more vegetables and less animal protein. We can cultivate native plants. We can seek out products that aren’t packaged in plastic, spend less time in cars and airplanes, raise the thermostat in the summer and lower it in the winter."
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Independence Day celebrations in Minneapolis descended into chaos as police and residents were attacked with fireworks, videos reveal.
Independent journalist Rebecca Brannon wrote on Twitter, "Insanely chaotic night across Minneapolis as I tracked 250-500 group of mostly juveniles across the city until 3 AM. State troopers as far as Stillwater joined MPD tonight but authorities were still overwhelmed; many officers seemed very frustrated."
Brannon posted numerous videos of people intentionally launching fireworks at buildings, residents, cars, and police officers on the night of the 4th of July. Brannon noted that several of the people firing fireworks were dressed in all black and wearing masks.
Brannon said she was attacked: "Hundreds set off a war zone of fireworks shooting at people and vehicles – behind and all around me. One person even started shooting roman candles at me while I filmed."
(WARNING: Graphic video)
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A young man suffered a serious injury to his abdomen after a firework exploded in a crowd of people.
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A WCCO-TV news team was feet away from a firework exploding while conducting an interview about the chaos in the neighborhood near Boom Island.
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There was a confrontation between police officers and several individuals near Lake Calhoun. An officer orders the group to "go home" and accuses them of "terrorizing people."
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KMSP-TV reported that commercial-grade fireworks were being launched from a vehicle at Minnehaha Regional Park.
Erin Gormley, caretaker for her condominium near Bde Maka Ska, told KMSP-TV, "They were shooting explosives at me because I was protecting the property. They had no regard for anything, they were putting fireworks, like explosive ones, under the cars."
Gormley added, "I felt afraid. I was not going to leave my front door."
Despite the heavy police presence, including officers from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter, the crowds seemed unwilling to disperse.
Local resident Erin Hewitt said, "There was just a complete disrespect for everybody. Once the police came, there was no leaving. They were just hanging out, they weren’t listening to the police whatsoever. It was pretty intense."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said at a press conference, "The targeting of innocent people with fireworks is unlawful, dangerous, and wholly unacceptable."
"But it was really I think after midnight, we had probably a couple of hundred young people gathered in the area of the lake around Bde Maka Ska," O'Hara stated. "And that was where it became challenging just because there were so many kids gathered, onlookers to observe this activity, and they were parked deeply into some of the neighborhoods there. And it just took us time to clear everybody out. And just because of the volume of that, then it became, you know, trying to keep disrupting them wherever they were, then trying to go after them."
Police said there were 16 people arrested, 11 of whom were juveniles.
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Authorities have seized 38,000 pounds of illegal fireworks and arrested two suspects in connection with a massive storage facility fire in Silicon Valley, according to the San Jose Police Department.
"The large amount of fireworks stored in the unit caused the entire building to catch fire resulting in everything stored inside to be completely lost and unsalvageable," SAPD said in a statement.
Audible explosions were coming from the building when the fire near Monterey Highway was reported at about 6:05 p.m., San Jose Fire Department public information manager Jake Pisani told the Mercury News. The two-alarm blaze was upgraded to a three-alarm around 7:45 p.m.
The 40-50 units in the two-story storage facility building were a total loss, and multiple surrounding buildings and units sustained serious damage from fire, smoke, and water, San Jose Fire Department Battalion Chief Brad Cloutier told KGO-TV.
San Jose Fire Department's arson investigators and SJPD's Assaults Unit began their investigation into the Blossom Hill Road storage facility fire June 16. They discovered multiple storage units that contained fireworks in addition to those found immediately after the fire.
Detectives procured multiple search warrants for both residences and storage units which they executed "throughout several days and multiple operations."
SJPD's Covert Response Unit arrested Dasilva and Valassis in San Jose June 29. The pair were arrested for "various crimes" and booked into jail.
In addition to the 38,000 pounds of illegal fireworks, officials also seized over 13 ounces of methamphetamine for sale, over 200 grams of cocaine for sale, marijuana for sale, approximately $4,800 in cash, and a semi-automatic firearm.
Photographs of the storage facility aftermath and seized items below were provided by the SJPD. The photographs include multiple plastic bags with what appear to be illicit substances, what appears to be a small elettronic scale, three piles of cash, a firearm, the interior of a storage unit, and the charred remains of storage facility contents.
Authorities say their investigation is ongoing.
Violent groups attacked Chicago police vehicles in at least two incidents over the holiday weekend, injuring one officer.
In the first incident on Saturday night, a rowdy crowd attacked Chicago police squad cars. The crowd kicked the vehicle doors, jumped on the hoods, and punched the windshields, according to WBBM-TV.
Chicago police said an officer was traveling in a marked patrol car in the area when an object struck the vehicle, shattering the windshield. The officer was taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.
Additional officers were called to the scene for backup. No arrests were made.
A second attack happened early Monday morning, when fireworks were shot at Chicago police vehicles.
Towhnall senior writer Julio Rosas, who was in Chicago reporting on violence over Independence Day weekend, shared video of a crowd launching fireworks at cop cars as they slowly backed away at an intersection.
Individuals can bee seen kicking the police vehicle in the video as it retreats.
\u201cTowards the end of the video, you can see a firework land on the hood of a CPD vehicle. The vehicle sustained damage, including: broken headlights, windshield shattered, and damage to the hood. Officers were inside the vehicle.\u201d— Julio Rosas (@Julio Rosas) 1656798142
There have been no reported arrests from the second incident and no officers were harmed.
Chicago police increased their presence in city neighborhoods for an expected surge in violence over the long weekend. At least 54 people were shot, seven fatally, over 4th of July holiday weekend, WLS-TV reported.
There were 22 people shot on Friday alone, four of them killed. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown pleaded with parents to keep track of their children amid the violence.
"There's no reason why everyone can't enjoy the holiday and every event safely. Parents, please, please know where your children are," Brown said, according to Fox News. "Don't leave them to government to be the parents of your kids. We need you, parents, please, to help us make sure your young people are safe."
Victims of the deadly shootings include a 24-year-old woman who was caught in the crossfire between two gunmen and a 26-year-old man who was killed in a drive-by shooting while he was riding a bike.
The youngest victim of the weekend violence was a 10-year-old boy who was wounded by bullets inside of his own home. The boy was sitting inside his bedroom when gunfire struck his house, hitting him in the buttocks and in an ankle. He was taken to the University of Chicago Comers Children's Hospital in good condition, police said.
Last year, 19 people were killed and more than 100 people were shot in Chicago while the country celebrated Independence Day.
Residents in a major Italian city went viral over the weekend after violating an ordinance that barred them from using fireworks in New Year's Eve celebrations.
Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi issued an ordinance ahead of New Year's celebrations that enacted "the absolute ban on the use and detonation of fireworks, firecrackers, barrels, rockets and similar pyrotechnic devices, even if freely sold, throughout the city from 16:00 on 31 December 2021 to 24:00 on 1 January 2022."
The reasons behind the ban? The COVID-19 pandemic and the environment.
A translation of Gaetano's order explained:
"Taking into account that with the Prime Ministerial Decree of 14 December 2021 the state of epidemiological emergency from COVID-19 has been extended until March 31st 2022; that with subsequent ordinances the President of the Campania Region has ordered further health prevention measures with the aim, among other things, of preventing crowding or crowding phenomena," the order continued, "it is therefore necessary to regulate the use of the aforementioned fireworks considering prevailing the need to guarantee safety and health."
Video taken of Naples' skyline on New Year's Eve showed that residents in Italy's third-largest city rebelled against their mayor's order, resulting in stunning displays of fireworks across the city.
By ignoring the mayor's orders, residents faced incurring a fine of 500 Euros.
A\u00f1o nuevo en N\u00e1poles. En teor\u00eda multan con 500\u20ac a quien tire petardos.pic.twitter.com/926Zy2w9vc— NIPORWIFI \u00a9 (@NIPORWIFI \u00a9) 1640995262
According to Naples newspaper Il Mattino, multiple people incurred injuries during New Year's celebrations across Naples and the surrounding province.
The newspaper explained that "fireworks...greeted the arrival of the new year in Naples despite the order that prohibited them issued by the mayor, Gaetano Manfredi."
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