Fire officials are urging everyone in western Massachusetts to be smart and leave the fireworks to the professionals. On Wednesday they held a demonstration to show the dangers of illegal fireworks at Holyoke Community College.

Fireworks safety experts used two powerful messages to prove their point today, a dangerous explosion, and a personal story.

"When I was 8 years old I was hit with a bottle rocket in my right eye", said Joshua Jackson.

Jackson is an Olympic athlete who competes in the triple jump. The injury left him blind in his right eye, which robbed him of the chance to excel in other sports.

"I was a good football player, a good basketball player, but those sports had to be put on the back burner because of the vision, and eye coordination that came along with that," added Jackson.

Injuries are one of the many hazards of illegal fireworks, according to the State fire marshal their are more blazes on July fourth than any other day of the year, and half of those fires are caused by fireworks.

The numbers speak for themselves, according to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2007-08 fireworks were responsible for 9,800 injuries, 32, 600 fires and six civilian deaths.

As a nurse in the emergency room at Baystate Medical, Ida Konderwicz puts faces to those statistics.

"Third degree burns to the face and the head and the ears, a lot of eye injuries, and even though its illegal in the state of Massachusetts, Emergency rooms are anticipating a lot of injuries from fireworks", said Konderwicz.

Heading into the holiday weekend, the NFPA wants residents to have fun, but to do it responsibly.

"The proper and safest way to enjoy fireworks displays and celebrate out nations birthday, is to attend to public displays where on trained professionals will be involved in their use", said NFPA President James Shannon.