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With America’s semiquincentennial set to take place over the weekend, people all over the country are prepping their grills and parade floats; but there’s one other tradition that has authorities issuing warnings.

Fourth of July fireworks are involved in approximately 75% of the annual 15,000 firework-related emergency room visits every year. Data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows that anywhere between eight and 15 people die in firework-related accidents every year. The most common type of injury from household pyrotechnics is burns; however, these accidents can also result in amputations, blast trauma, and severe eye injuries. For young children and toddlers, the leading injury type is a burn from sparklers.

In 2025, at least 15 people died as the result of a firework accident, the agency reported. Many of these incidents involved misuse of the device, misfires and/or malfunctions. Those aged 15 to 24 years old accounted for the majority of the injured.

At least two people were attacked by alligators in as many days in Central Florida with one Orlando woman suffering fatal wounds, marking three such attacks in the state in the last week.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official told reporters with NBC News that he could not give a reason for the Sunday, June 21, fatal attack but did point out that it is the end of the animals’ mating season and that they are extremely territorial around this time of year. “Courtship” for alligators begins in early April, according to the FWC official website, with mating occurring in May or June.

At this time of year, female alligators will build nests comprised of soil, debris, and vegetation where they will deposit an average of 32 to 46 eggs. This occurs in late June or early July. Hatching typically occurs anywhere between 63 and 68 days later, or from mid-August through early September.