VIDEO – ‘Grateful to Be Alive’: California Gardener’s Hand Blown Off by Suspected Firework

A gardener was seriously hurt when he picked up what was reportedly an unexploded firework on July 8 in Torrance, California.

Hector Mayoral, 37, was mowing a neighbor’s lawn when he saw something on the ground and picked it up, Fox 11 reported Sunday.

However, the moment he touched it the device exploded.

Video footage shows the moment the blast occurred, and KTLA reported it was a homemade firework:

Mayoral said, “I see this ball on the ground… so I picked it up in my hand,” adding it was a “big explosion.”

Now, most of his left hand and fingers are gone along with the vision in one eye. When the blast occurred, paramedics, law enforcement, and the bomb squad rushed to the scene.

Neighbor Ken Lucas heard the noise and immediately ran to grab something to use as a tourniquet for the injured man.

Lucas recalled asking a bomb tech what he thought it was, and “he said it was probably bigger than an M-80.”

An image shows the injured man recovering at the hospital:

Mayoral told reporters he does not have insurance, but the medical bills are piling up. He may also need surgery on his eye and may get a prosthetic hand in the future if he can afford it.

As of Monday afternoon, a GoFundMe page has raised over $83,000 to help in his recovery. The page reads:

Hector needs all the support he can get right now. While medical expenses are the least of Hector’s worries because he is grateful to be alive, he can still use the help of donations from his family and friends to help pay his expenses since he can no longer work due to this horrendous incident.

Meanwhile, a teenager named La’Veyah Mosley in California who lost all the fingers on her left hand and a portion of her right hand during a fireworks accident is speaking out about the dangers, ABC 7 reported July 1.

“I had a sparkler and I lit an M-80 that my neighbor had found on the floor and he gave it to me and I lit it and that day it changed my life,” she recalled:

Her family hopes their story will protect other people from being injured in a similar way.

“I would never want it to happen to anybody else. Make sure that you’re safe during the holidays and responsible,” the teen concluded.