Lest you forget that fireworks are dangerous explosive devices, let's take a look at some of the worst firework-related disasters of all time.....

In 2013, sixteen people were killed and hundreds more were injured when a truck carrying fireworks for a religious ceremony exploded in a forty-three thousand square foot open-air marketplace in Mexico. The accident started when a lit firework misfired and landed in the fireworks-laden truck. The aftermath showed a gruesome scene of bodies and debris littering a one hundred mile radius.

During a July 4th backyard celebration, around thirty people were in a house partying while their young children played with sparklers outside. Suddenly, a tiny spark from one of the sparklers fell into a bag of unused fireworks, which exploded at ground level. Seven people were badly injured, five of whom were children, and one woman had major burns on over half of her body.

In 2013, a truck carrying Chinese New Year fireworks exploded and destroyed part of an elevated highway bridge in China's Henan Province. Two hundred and sixty feet of the bridge collapsed, sending vehicles plunging more than a hundred feet to the ground. The explosion and highway destruction killed twenty-six people and injured countless more.

A newlywed husband and father was killed in front of his family when some backyard fireworks exploded and hit him in the throat. Nineteen-year-old Austin McCloud was celebrating Independence Day with his wife, his son, his step-son (both of whom were toddlers at the time), and several other family members in their backyard, when a firework misfired and killed him instantly.

In 2004, another explosion in a fireworks factory detonated one thousand two hundred tons of fireworks in a fireworks factory in a small town in Denmark. Though only one fireman lost his life, another thirty-four firefighters suffered severe health problems due to burns and smoke inhalation. Additionally, seventeen area residents were injured in the blast, and the explosion ultimately cost the town one hundred and forty million dollars worth of damage. Ouch!

In 2011, 41-year-old Jesse William Burley of Fargo, North Dakota was decapitated by a mortar-style firework when he attempted to set off fireworks to celebrate July 4th in his suburban neighborhood. Burley had already set off one of the explosive devices, but when he attempted to detonate the second one, the fireworks exploded and blew off his head. Several neighbors, including small children, witnessed the incident.