The DailyMail is reporting that according to Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, 22-year-old Devon Staples of Calais. Maine had been setting off fireworks in a friend’s backyard Saturday night when the incident occurred.
Staples and his friends had been drinking. McCausland said Staples placed a mortar tube on his head and set it off. The firework exploded, injuring his head and killing him instantly.
The New York Daily News spoke with Devon’s brother, Cody Staples, who was standing just five feet away from his brother when the mortar exploded. He says it was a “freak accident.” Cody says his brother was holding a lighter which made the firework go off “accidentally.”
“I was the first one who got there. There was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there,” said the distraught brother. “It was a freak accident … But Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh.”
Devon Staples’ death is the first fireworks fatality in Maine since the state legalized fireworks on January 1, 2012, according to state officials. Calais is on the Canadian border, near St. Stephen, New Brunswick.
State fire marshalls are also investigating several other fireworks incidents involving injuries in Friendship, Jefferson, Lebanon and Woodstock. Most of the accidents were limited to burns and eye injuries.
Colorado man sustains life-threatening injuries on the fourth
A fight over the proper American flag etiquette has left a Ft. Collins, Colorado man facing life-threatening injuries. The alcohol-fueled pool party turned nasty following an argument about the precedence of the flag. Police say someone punched 25-year-old Todd Hesser in the face, causing him to fall on the concrete.
Hessler was listed as being in critical condition in a local hospital on Saturday night. At least seven patrol units responded to the incident to help with crowd control and interview witnesses. Although there have been no arrests, a 20-year-old suspect has been identified.
