COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Mostly-masked shoppers were selecting their own explosives Friday for stay-at-home fireworks shows this holiday weekend.
“This whole COVID thing has been really bad all around,” said Forest Casey, a fourth-generation fireworks salesman at his family-owned shop in Columbia. “For whatever reason it makes people really want to buy fireworks.”
South Carolina has some of the most liberal fireworks laws in the nation. Stands across the state sell pyrotechnic bricks that launch a dozen or more shells, setting off explosions that can rival a small town’s. Meanwhile, municipal celebrations across the state have been canceled.
Fireworks injuries are unfortunately common, but this year it’s the potential for crowds to gather that really concerns health officials in South Carolina, which trails Arizona and Florida in the 14-day average of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases, when adjusted for population.
State officials announced 1,558 new confirmed cases and 10 more deaths Friday, following three days in a row with more than 1,600 newly reported COVID-19 infections. The state corrections department separately announced the death of an inmate from Tyger River Correctional Institution, the third state inmate to die from COVID-19 complications.