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Many people enjoy lighting sparklers as a safe, legal way to celebrate the Fourth of July.
But according to state data, sparklers are also the fireworks that cause the most reported injuries in Oregon.
Sparklers accounted for 26 of the 120 fireworks-related injuries reported to state emergency rooms and fire departments between 2011 and 2014. Mortars, which are similar to the fireworks used in professional displays and are illegal in Oregon, accounted for 25 injuries during that time.
Sparklers generally have a metal core and are hotter than people realize, according to Dave Gulledge, a program coordinator for the Oregon Office of the State Fire Marshal.
"It’s in the neighborhood of 1,000 degrees or more that they burn, and it takes a while for them to cool off," said Gulledge. "If smaller kids or careless people grab that part of the sparkler that had just burned, it does cause skin damage and injury."
An estimated 10,500 people visited emergency rooms for fireworks related injuries in 2014, according to a report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. An estimated 1,400 of those incidents involved sparklers.