July 4 reveller is killed instantly after launching firework from top of his head

A young man who was drinking and celebrating the Fourth of July holiday in Maine tried to launch a firework off the top of his head, fatally injuring himself, authorities said.

Devon Staples and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in the backyard of a friend’s home in the small eastern Maine city of Calais, said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Staples, 22, of Calais, placed a fireworks mortar tube on his head and set it off, he said on Sunday.

The firework exploded, killing Staples instantly, McCausland said.

His death is the first fireworks fatality in Maine since the state legalised fireworks on January 1, 2012, authorities said.

Calais is on the Canadian border near New Brunswick.