LAUDERHILL, Fla. – A post Fourth of July dare involving fireworks morphed into a Halloween-like nightmare Sunday, with dozens of kids watching the horrific moment a 15-year-old's fingers exploded off his hand.
"It had a short fuse and we told him to put it down, and he said 'no,'" said a boy who witnessed the incident. "And when he lit it up, it just blew up."
A mom in the neighborhood said it started as a dare -- a game of rock-paper-scissors, with the loser, Ryan Lue-Young, agreeing to hold a firework the kids called an "onion."
"He lit it up and instantly all his fingers were gone," said another boy who witnessed the incident.
According to the consumer product safety commission, the most common fireworks-related injuries are to the hand and fingers. They reported that in 2013 fireworks were involved in an estimated 11,400 injuries treated in the U.S. hospital emergency departments. Sixty-five percent of those in the month surrounding the Fourth of July, and more than half were individuals younger than 20 years old.
YouTube is home to plenty of scary videos of so called "onion" fireworks explosions. If the firework was indeed the same firework that teenager was holding, it is a haunting look at the explosive force that no doubt has changed his life and the neighborhood forever.
Lue-Young's aunt said he is undergoing surgery at Broward Health Medical Center to reattach his fingers.
It is unclear whether anyone will be charged.