An injured city firefighter was held up by Mayor Bloomberg yesterday as an example of the dangers of illegal fireworks.
“You saw in the paper today there was a firefighter who lost part of his hand,” he told a crowd gathered at a Fourth of July Parade in Staten Island. “Fireworks can blind kids, they can maim them.”
The FDNY is investigating the incident, in which Brooklyn firefighter Michael Decker, 33, lost three fingers off his right hand as he allegedly tried to toss a lit “blockbuster” firecracker out of his kitchen window.
Decker, of Ladder Co. 118, did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, but on Monday, he denied that he’d been playing with fireworks.