NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured Friday morning while playing with some kind of firework in North Miami Beach, authorities confirmed.
The accident was reported in the 17000 block of Northeast 21st Avenue.
Residents in the area told Local 10 News reporter Roy Ramos that they heard a loud explosion just after 8:30 a.m. followed by screams.
They then saw the boy, Darrian Guerro, bleeding from his hand.
Darrian’s grandfather was in tears after seeing his grandson’s injury.
“It was just almost like something exploded,” Ivana Higgs, who lives nearby, said. “The whole neighborhood kind of shook. It was a big bang.”
Higgs said she heard a witness’ screams just after the explosion.
“When I first heard it, I didn’t come outside until I heard screaming -- until I heard a woman screaming,” she said. “It gave me chills down my back.”
Neighbors, like Etudia Noel, said she ran outside to see the boy crying and calling for his mother.
“All the four fingers were cut and only the thumb was left,” she said.
The boy’s parents told Local 10 News that they weren’t home at the time of the explosion, but he was being watched by his grandparents.
“I go to work and they tell me my boy, his hand is the problem,” the boy’s father said.
His grandparents say the child was outside at the time and came running to them, seriously hurt.
“I saw his hand and he said, ‘Call my mom.’ And I said, ‘What did you do?’” the boy’s grandmother said in Spanish.
According to police, the boy suffered a serious hand injury and was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
They said he is expected to survive his injuries.