How do I have the best fourth of July fireworks?

Fourth of July. What a great holiday. Family, friends, good food and drink. Here in New Hampshire we take our freedom seriously. Just how serious we are about freedom is best captured in our state slogan, “Live Free or Die.” Undoubtedly, being free, or dying, is a strong commitment to freedom.

Are you getting a fair price for your homeowners insurance? Click the button below to find out with this home insurance calculator.

Fourth of July – Post Pandemic

Last year we thought we were celebrating a post pandemic July 4th. That didn’t turn out quite as expected. This year hopefully we’re truly post pandemic. We’re back to the my wife’s families four traditional July 4 holiday parties. Yes, you read that correctly, four different parties. I guess that’s what is called either a “truly patriotic family” or “a family that loves a good party.” I’ll let you decide which.

Our second July 4th party this year is on July 3rd. That one is the fireworks display over the lake. Not everyone has the luxury of what feels like a personal fireworks display that’s professionally managed. And that’s when problems can arise. Individual fireworks displays are more risky than professionally staged shows. Last year this was a particularly large problem. I remember hearing the mayor of Boston being interviewed about personal fireworks displays. He cited more than a 1000% increase in 911 calls due to issues with personal fireworks, and that was still in June.

Be aware of the laws around personal fireworks. Beyond being law abiding, also be responsible. Here’s our list of how to easily be responsible.

Rules to Live by This Fourth of July

These tips may sound like I’m trying to be funny. I’m not. The logic and the data behind each tip is explained below:

Put a woman in charge – yep, that’s what the data says
Make sure the woman in charge is older than 24
Keep children and young adults away, in particular

Children five and under
Young adults 20 to 24

Read the instructions – that’s a boring tip

Put a Woman in Charge

With fireworks, men are 1.56 times more likely to be injured than a woman. No surprises there, right? Knowing that women are less prone to be injured with fireworks is the reason we’re choosing a woman to supervise.

Make Sure She’s 25, or Older

Young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 are the most likely to be injured by fireworks. Compared to the aggregate of all other ages, young adults are 1.44 times more likely to be injured by fireworks.

Again, no big surprises here. For everyone’s safety we now know that the woman in charge should be at least 25 years old.

Take Care of the Children

Children ages five and below are the second most likely to be injured. Unfortunately, the young children had only a slightly lower probability of getting hurt than the young adults. This is troubling since the children are purely victims and not the instigators.

Overall, children 15 and below had a higher probability of being injured by fireworks. Be sure to supervise them carefully.

The obvious question to ask is if children five and under are the second most likely to be injured, who’s most likely? Yes, it’s the young adults, 20 to 24. Hence, the woman in charge is 25 or older.

Read the Instructions

Undoubtedly, this is the most boring recommendation of all. However, most injuries are burns. The instructions on each type of fireworks should explain the proper handling and lighting procedure, significantly reducing the chance of a burn.

When it comes to fireworks, anyone 24 and under that doesn’t like to read should be kept far, far away. You might consider sending them to the library to brush up on their reading this July 4. 😉

How Good is Your Insurance?

ValChoice analyzes nearly every auto and homeowners insurance company in the country. The analysis is done in every state where the insurance company operates. This analysis enables consumers to know which companies will provide them the best protection. Not surprisingly, there is no correlation between the best protection and seeing the most advertisements on TV.

The data we use to analyze companies comes from state insurance departments. Without doubt, this is the highest quality data available on insurance companies. Be an informed shopper by getting a free report on your insurance company. If it’s good, tell a friend. If it’s bad, switch companies.

Click the button below to order a rating on your current insurance company, or any company from whom you’re considering buying insurance. Be sure to checkout your car and home insurance companies. Now you can actually know how good they are before something happens, like a fireworks rocket being accidentally shot through a window. Do it now, because you don’t want to find out after it’s too late that your insurance isn’t great.

What to do if Your Insurance Didn’t Make the Grade

ValChoice not only rates every auto and home insurance company. We also list the best companies. If your company didn’t score well on the free rating above, click the buttons below to find the best insurance companies where you live.

Data source: Consumer Product Safety Commission of the USA, 2016 Fireworks Annual Report

About Dan Karr

Dan has been a CEO or Vice President for high-technology companies for over 20 years. While working as a Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for a technology company, Dan was seriously injured while commuting to work. After dealing with trying to get insurance companies to pay his significant medical bills, or to settle a claim so Dan could pay the medical bills, he became intimately aware of the complexity of insurance claims. Dan founded ValChoice to pay forward his experience by bringing consumers, insurance agents and financial advisors easy-to-understand analysis needed to know which insurance companies provide the best price, protection — claims handling — and service.