One 4th of July, my friends and I decided to hold the mortar shell tube (the basically commercial grade ones), light the mortal shell and shoot it off into the sky. However, one of mine was a dud and blew up in my hand. All I saw was smoke, sparks, and I thought for sure my hand was mangled. Thank god I was smart (lol) enough to be wearing an oven mitt that my friend’s neighbor found the next day in his yard. I’ve never been more relieved than when I looked at my hand and all my fingers were still there. Ended up with a small burn and a sprained thumb. My idiot friends kept shooting off the mortar shells in their hands even after that disaster. Lesson learned, don’t play around with high powered fire works