Hominy Man Loses Eye In Fireworks Mishap

A 21-year-old man from Hominy learned Thursday he will lose one of his eyes after a fireworks accident on the 4th of July.

A firework blew up in Blaze Childers' face - breaking his eye socket, nose, and busting open his lip. He says - he's lucky he can see at all.

"As soon as I went to go drop it in there, it went off and hit me right in the face and I went back and just kind of sat there," said Blaze Childers.

Childers says after that, everything went black.

"It kind of took a second to collect myself, checked to see if I had all my teeth. I felt my face and I just felt blood going everywhere," he said.

Childers says he was celebrating the 4th of July and setting off fireworks with friends. He and a buddy lit two fireworks and ran away.

He thought they both went off, so he went back to light another but when he looked over the tube, it went off in his face.

"Had four stitches underneath my nose. I believe the bones around my socket are broke; both eyes were swollen shut; it was a dark ride to the hospital. I couldn't see anything," said Blaze Childers, fireworks accident victim.

Childers says the firework hit his eyeball and required stitches, which are the black lines across his cornea. He spent three days in the hospital.

He says he's in the military but isn't active duty so doesn't have insurance right now.

"I'm grateful for my military experience to be able to adapt to any environment and that kind of helped me with controlling the way I feel about it. You've just got to think positive," he said.

Childers says he has seen this happen to other people on the news but never expected it to happen to him.

"For sure I am going to pay more attention to what I am doing," he said.

Childers says he's setting up a GoFundMe me page, hoping to get some help with medical bills.