Teen loses leg, fingers after fireworks mishap

Posted: 1:47 PM, Jul 05, 2016
Updated: 2016-07-05 14:53:33-04

A 15-year-old boy was nearly killed by an accidental fireworks explosion at a family member's home on Saturday. The boy lost a leg, several of his fingers and possibly his eyesight in the explosion.

Rowdy Radford was attempting to light an improvised "sparkler bomb," he'd made himself by tying together hundreds of sparklers, according to the Houston Chronicle . The display exploded unexpectedly, injuring Radford, another child and creating a 4-foot crater in the ground.

Radford has undergone multiple surgeries since the accident and remains in a Houston hospital. He had his left leg removed below the knee and he needed screws to hold his arms together, the Chronicle reported.

"I just want this out, I want everybody to see this so they'll know what happened, don't let their kids do this. it's not worth it," Radford's mother Wendy Smith told Houston's KPRC-TV .
