One early Sunday morning I got a call out for a personal injury to multiple children and I immediately recognized the street. (It was the one I lived on) Apparently three of my neighbors were up in these early hours getting ready to deliver the Sunday paper (paperboys, remember them). Well with all the parents still asleep they decided to do a science project of sorts. They cut off the end of an empty CO2 cylinder and packed it with gunpowder. Their thought process in this was it would launch like a rocket, but being none were in fact a rocket scientist, they actually built a grenade, they then proceeded to light it and…..

When we arrived at the scene, we had one child coming out of one house and the other patient from another. Shrapnel hit one child in the arm and went in deeply. I treated the second child that was struck in the eye. I was a newly minted EMT and I recall thinking, I know exactly how to treat this, cover both eyes to reduce movement and reduce damage. Both of these children needed surgery and the one I treated luckily didn’t lose their eye. The third child was the luckiest of the three. They were lying on the ground when the explosion occurred, apparently tired, and the shrapnel missed them.

Since this was the street I grew up on it was a quick response, I didn’t need to consult our directions book. (GPS not invented yet) Upon arrival we woke everyone up with our commotion, except my parents. They slept through the whole thing. Never heard any of the ambulances, fire or police; rushing up and down the street, sound sleepers I guess.