Julie Heckman: Hi! I am Julie Heckman, Executive Director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. Today we are discussing firework safety. Now we have just selected our perfect spot to use fireworks and we walked through the important tips to keep in mind in setting up the area so that it is safe to use fireworks. Now I am going to show you how to properly ignite your fireworks as well as dispose them afterwards.

As you can see we have selected an area that has plenty of space. We have got lots of room to discharge our fireworks that keeps us free and clear from our products that are waiting to be used as well as our crowd or spectators. I am going to place this on a flat level surface and now before we actually light the fuse on the fireworks. We have just a few more tips we need to cover. First, it's important to have a sober, responsible adult in charge of all firework activities. In this case that would be me. We have got our safety gear. We have our bucket of water handy and we have a working garden hose just in case we have a mishap.

We have our safety glasses which are very important to protect your eyes and I am going to use the utility lighter because that gives me a little extra distance from the fuse and will help protect my arm in any event if the fuse sputters quickly. Now with those tips in mind we are ready to light the fireworks and have some fun. And I am going to move at a safe distance.

Now, a few more tips, I would like to share with you to make certain that your celebration with fireworks is safe and enjoyable for you and your family. Please only light one firework at a time and again keep your pets inside the house and keep youngsters away from the fireworks. Now the last step we need to do is actually clean up the fireworks and it is rather simple. You want to take your finished firework item and it is still going to be pretty warm for you to touch, you should dispose off it in the bucket of water. Let those fireworks soak on ice and when they have cooled in the morning it is very simple to just dump them into your trash. And dispose of them with the rest of your household garbage. I hope you found this video production to be informative and educational and I hope that all of your fireworks celebrations in the future are safe and happy ones.