It was a freak occurrence, a one-in-a-million accident that put Iolan Trena Jacobs in the hospital for 10 days, and left her with nightmares for weeks and months afterward. JACOBS WAS with her three children, and then-fiance, James, and other friends on the northwest edge of Iola last July 4. THE FIREWORK tipped onto its side, pointed away from the group, when the first flaming ball was shot to the side. The momentum forced the device to flip around, this time pointed straight at the group. JACOBS’ FAMILY began the week a bit hesitant to shoot off fireworks.
As Thursday’s July 4 festivities are set to commence, Jacobs admits she’s unsure how she’ll react the first time she sees a ball of flaming sparks arc toward the sky.
“I know I couldn’t even watch them on TV for a while,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs, her family and some friends – some more reluctantly than others – will gather Thursday evening for a quiet July 4 celebration, one year to the day after she suffered burns to her left hand and buttocks.
The physical injuries have healed, for the most part.
Her hands still swell in hot weather, to the point she cannot remove her wedding ring if she walks outside.
“I have to be careful when I’m cooking, especially if I’m around steam,” she said. “My hands blister easily. It’ll be that way for a couple more years.”
The last firework of the evening, designed to shoot a series of colorful, sparkling, flaming balls into the sky, tipped over as the fuse was lit.
“We had taken all sorts of safety precautions when the kids were shooting off the little fireworks,” Jacobs recalled. “We even had a water hose. But that was in the back yard.”
And in any case, she noted, the accident occurred so quickly, it would have been impossible to prevent her injuries.
The group apparently made one fateful mistake.
They were using what they thought was a flat, solid surface from which to shoot the fireworks, the street at Dodge Drive.
“You’d think that would work, but if you look closely, the street has a lot of rocks, and it’s just not flat enough for small fireworks,” Jacobs said. “That was our mistake.”
The ball missed Jacobs, but struck her lawn chair, deflecting onto her back and down her shorts.
Jacobs quickly pulled down her shorts, burning her fingers, but the damage had been done.
Even then, Jacobs counts herself lucky. Had the ball gone a few inches to the left or right, it probably would have hit one of the five children in the group.
But excitement among the youngsters has begun to grow as Thursday nears.
“Our friends had two kids with us during the accident,” she said. “For the longest time, they didn’t even want to talk about fireworks, but they’ve started to say how they want to shoot them off, too.”
Jacobs understands, but has a few ironclad rules.
“No sparklers,” she said flatly. “People think those are safe, but they burn just as hot as the big ones, and can do just as much damage.”
And any large-scale fireworks will be shot off from a safe, suitable distance from her and any children.
“We’re going to have a small, private fireworks show,” she said. “We already have our spot. It’ll be near a pond.”
And Jacobs will let everyone else handle the fuse lighting.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with that,” she said.
Incident a cautionary tale
