Children and children-at-heart look forward to the glittery night skies of July 4th, and in Utah, July 24th. Whether it's bringing a blanket and watching from a park, or buying smaller fireworks to light off at home, the explosives are a staple of July.

According to a 2017 report, Utahns imported more than $2.6 million of fireworks that year. Americans as a whole imported $279 billion worth of fireworks in the same year.

Even though Americans use them to celebrate independence, fireworks are not a product of the U.S. From when they were invented to how many millions of dollars they do in property damage each year, here are five facts you may not know about fireworks.

Fireworks have Chinese roots and a long American history

The Chinese created the first bamboo firecrackers around the second century B.C. The people in Liuyang, China would cut stalks of dry bamboo and throw them into the fire. When heated, the pockets of air in the wood explode. They were used to ward off evil spirits, according to the American Pyrotechnics Safety and Education Foundation.

From there, purified chemical elements would need to be synthesized from ingredients and then combined to make larger fireworks. Part philosophical and part proto-chemist, alchemists in ancient China experimented by mixing saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. When mixed together, you get an explosive mixture. Thus, the first weapons of war were created and a foundation for aerial fireworks.

“By 1200, China had built the first rocket cannons, using gunpowder to aim and blast projectiles at their enemies,” according to the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

They made their place in American tradition with the founding fathers. John Adams wrote a letter to his wife about fireworks displays. "This day will be most memorable in the history of America," pens Adams. "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival... It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade... bonfires and illuminations [fireworks]... from one end of this content to the other, from this time forward forevermore," reports Gear Control.

Chemical elements create the colors

The American Chemical Society (ACA) says that all aerial fireworks contain these components:

• Fuel
• An oxidizing agent
• A binder
• Metal salts or metal oxides for color

“When the colorants are heated, their atoms absorb energy and then produce light as they lose excess energy. Different chemicals produce different amounts of energy, creating different colors,” says Live Science.

Specific elements are put into the pods to create a different colored explosion. For example, a blue firework is made with copper-chloride compounds, CuCl2, because those compounds emit blue-green light when exposed to a flame. These are other colors and the compounds used to make them colorful:

• Red: strontium salts, strontium carbonate, and lithium salts
• Purple: copper-chlorides and red-producing strontium compounds
• Orange: calcium salts and calcium chloride
• Green: barium chloride and other barium compounds

Fireworks cause millions in property damage every year

Each year, fireworks cause an estimated $43 million in direct property damage, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Typical cases would be houses hit by bottle rockets, lawns singed by aerials coming down prematurely, or fires caused by a firework. Even the most careful of fireworks enthusiasts can make a mistake or light off a faulty firework.

Fireworks are responsible for thousands of emergency room visits, but much fewer deaths

Last year, 9,000 people were treated for firework injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). However, the actual number of deaths related to fireworks is much lower. A report states that an average of seven people die per year related to fireworks.

Fireworks injuries can be avoided with these methods

There’s no doubt that fireworks are dangerous, as they are essentially made from the same ingredients that shot cannonballs during wartime. The CPSC recommends taking these precautions around fireworks:

• Always have an adult supervise fireworks. Sparklers, for example, burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees, which is hot enough to melt some metals.
• When lighting a fuse, don’t place any part of your body above the site of ignition or the path to the firework.
• If a firework doesn’t ignite after the spark goes into it from the fuse, don’t get close to it. Shoot it from a distance with a garden hose.
• Don’t use metal or glass containers to hold fireworks. This creates dangerous shrapnel.

Stay safe this year

Although beautiful and fun, fireworks can be dangerous if they're not used properly. For more interesting facts and safety guidelines, visit SelectHealth's firework safety guide.

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