LI man who lost arm: Don't light fireworks

Eric Smith has a message for people out there thinking about launching their own backyard pyrotechnics this Fourth of July.

Leave the fireworks to the professionals.

"Don't light fireworks," Smith said. "Don't trust them. That one-in-a-million chance will get you. It got me."

One year ago, Smith, 37, became a sobering statistic. He lost his left arm in a fireworks accident at his home in Islip Terrace.

Married with two children, the railroad worker said he was experienced with fireworks and thought he knew what he was doing.

Smith was using a 3-inch-wide steel pipe as a makeshift launcher when the pipe got too hot, causing the fireworks shell he dropped inside to suddenly explode.

Fifty people were gathered for the Smiths' annual backyard party last July 3 when the 5:45 p.m. explosion blew his arm off at the shoulder. The limb was too damaged to be reattached, he said.

Fireworks-related injuries were responsible for about 8,600 emergency room visits nationwide in 2010, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. More than 70 percent of those injuries, mostly burns to the hands and legs, occurred between June 18 and July 18.

Three deaths were reported last year as a result of fireworks in Colorado, Nebraska and Louisiana, the report found. Fireworks are banned in New York.

This Independence Day, Smith, his wife, Tania, and their two children -- an 11-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter -- won't be hosting a party at their Fairview Avenue home.

"It's a little upsetting," Smith said of the anniversary of his injury. "I'm going camping. I'm getting out of here for a week, so I don't have to be reminded with all the blasts.

"Fourth of July was my favorite holiday. No more."

Smith, a rail car inspector, said he returned to light duty for the Long Island Rail Road six weeks after the accident. Next week, he's scheduled to begin occupational and physical therapy with a prosthetic arm -- one that uses signals from his nerve endings to move the elbow, wrist and fingers.

Smith said getting used to the new arm will take a lot of hard work.

"It's tough," he said. "My wound has to callous over. It takes a lot out of me to use it."

But Smith said his life in some ways has changed for the better. He used to "burn the candle at both ends," he said, squeezing in extra hours at a second job.

Now family time comes first.

"It opened my eyes to life," Smith said. "I'm still here. I thank God every day I wake up. . . . It took me to lose my arm to realize that life is passing me by and I'm not enjoying it."

"I'm proud of him and proud of the way he handled everything," Tania Smith said. "He never got depressed."

With Robert Brodsky