RIVER ROUGE, Mich. – Twin 11-year-old girls found what they thought was a regular firework inside their home.
Police say they took it into the bathroom and lit it.
Too late, they realized they were in trouble and tried to dump it, and it exploded on them.
“It sounded like a bomb, it truly did,” neighbor Ernestine Dickerson said.
The next thing Mrs. Dickerson knew, the twins were running her way, and she could see one of them looked like she was missing her hand.
She called her daughter Nikki and granddaughter Kye to help. While Nikki tied a tourniquet on one 11-year-old’s missing fingers, Dickerson held the other.
“I just told her it was going to be ok,” Dickerson said.
River Rouge police were on the scene quickly and got both girls to the hospital.
River Rogue police Deputy Chief Dasumo Mitchell told Local 4 that the fireworks they got a hold of were illegal.
“It’s larger than an M80,” said Mitchell. “You can tell by the structural damage it did to the house.””
Police said they will track down who sold the illegal fireworks, but they credit Dickerson, her daughter, and granddaughter with making a difference.
“One of the neighbors is a nurse, and she applied the tourniquet immediately, so we applaud her for her quick thinking,” Mitchell said.
The twin’s mother was at work when the incident happened.
The girls just love Dickerson and refer to her as “Nana.” When we asked her how she sprang into action to help, she told us, “God’s great. God’s mercy”.
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