VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A man suffered a severe hand injury after a firework went off inside a vehicle, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Officers wrote in their incident report that just after 1 a.m. on Sunday, several people called dispatch to report hearing an explosion along Newmark Drive in Deltona.
The driver pulled to the side of the roadway after the victim in the passenger seat was injured.
"We need somebody here now. There is a hand gone," a man said to dispatchers.
The front windshield of the vehicle and another window both shattered because of the pressure from the explosion, according to investigators.
"What happened to their hand to get it to explode?" a dispatcher is heard asking on the call.
The man on the other end replied, “There’s a firework!”
Volusia County officials said their investigation suggests the victim removed part of the firework while sitting in the passenger seat. Since the firework was removed from its other parts, the firework exploded immediately after it was lit.
A neighbor also heard the commotion and placed a call into 911.
"I don't know what just happened. There was a big huge boom. There's a truck over here. Someone was yelling, saying they need a tourniquet. I don't know if a gun went off in their car. There's glass all over the road," the man told the dispatcher.
A witness at the scene also told a dispatcher the victim’s hand was partially severed.
Law enforcement wrote in their report that hospital staff told them the victim’s hand would likely be amputated and nothing criminal in nature took place.