Fire official burned at fireworks safety demo in Mount Prospect
BY MICHAEL LANSU Staff Reporter mlansu@suntimes.com July 3, 2012 2:44PM
Article Extras
Updated: August 5, 2012 6:26AM
A fire safety official was burned Tuesday at a fireworks safety demonstration in Mount Prospect.
Hillside Fire Chief Michael Kuryla, who is also president of the Cook County Fire Chiefs Association, said he was demonstrating the dangers of novelty fireworks that are available legally at stores when a canister containing eight tubes that were supposed to shoot flames into the air instead tipped over and went “willy-nilly” into a crowd of fire officials and news reporters.
One of the projectiles struck Laura Barros, who’s a member of the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance, in her foot, and she was taken to a hospital as a precaution with minor injuries, Kuryla said.
“The stuff we had today was the novelty stuff that is a concern for injury,” Kuryla said.
Michael Lansu
