Firework bomb severly injures teen

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A teenager badly injured his foot Monday with a makeshift pipe bomb made out of sparklers and PVC pipe, according to Albuquerque police.

"Basically, decided to put a whole bunch of sparklers together and ignite them and see how they would react," Officer Nadine Hamby said.

She said the boy, 16, decided to ignite a bundle of popular Fourth of July fireworks at the John B Robert Dam Flood Control Facility near Juan Tabo and Montgomery.

However the makeshift bomb exploded near him and severely injured his foot.

"Obviously, it was going to require some sort of surgery for him to recover," Hamby said.

Investigators said when things went wrong the teen used his cellular phone to call 911 and then his mother who also arrived on scene and watched as her son was taken away by ambulance.

He was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital where he's expected to recover. However, investigators couldn't say whether his foot could be saved.

The Albuquerque Fire Department is also investigating, Hamby said.

"Many people have the idea, the notion, that a sparkler is just a sparkler," said Hamby. "In this case it caused severe injury."