A 42-year-old Hawthorne man who had been trying to set off large mortar-type fireworks through a PVC pipe anchored in the ground died after the fireworks malfunctioned and the pipe exploded, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office reported Tuesday.
Darren D. Lotow’s wife called 911 about 9:23 p.m. Monday to say her husband had been trying to set off fireworks in a nearby pasture in the Campville area and she had been unable to reach him.
Patrol deputies and Alachua County Fire Rescue workers got to Lotow in the 19800 block of Northeast 22nd Lane and attempted CPR. He was flown to UF Health Shands Hospital but succumbed to his injuries, which were severe.
Deputies are investigating and the state fire marshal’s office was notified.
A 911 dispatcher coached Lotow's wife to continue doing CPR until emergency workers were able to get to the rural scene. He was bleeding heavily but they could tell he had a pulse.
"He was unresponsive and the fireworks didn't go up, they went sideways," she told rescuers at the scene.
Lotow's Facebook page lists him as chief operating officer of Advantage Wellness Services, a company that provides visiting physician service to residents of independent and assisted living facilities.
Jon Moore, a spokesman for Florida Chief Financial Officer and Fire Marshal Jeff Atwater, said the investigation is still in its infancy, so officials had few details to share.
Generally speaking, Moore wrote in an email, fireworks that fly or explode are illegal for recreational use.
"Those fireworks are intended to be used by agricultural experts to protect their crops and/or fish hatcheries from invasive wildlife species. They are not to be used at home for recreational purposes," he wrote.
Reporting what the agency said was a minimum number, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission did a special study on fireworks and reported that for the 2014 calendar year, there were 11 nonoccupational fireworks-related deaths, and an estimated 10,500 injurieLotows treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms.
Agency officials found no marked changes between 1999 and 2014 in the number of fireworks-related injuries and said that 74 percent of those injured by fireworks were men or boys.
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