REALLY?!? Why do people let their kids play with FIREWORKS?!?!?

Joel and I decided to have a lazy Sunday morning and go to mass in the evening. We slept in after playing cards with Dan and Stephanie late into the night on Saturday. After we got up, I made breakfast, and then Joel decided to bike to campus and sing for a while. Gary and I stayed home and got some sun while enjoying our coffee on the balcony. I was contemplating hitting the shower when Gary and I heard what sounded like a gun going off. I looked up and saw a firework flare exploding from the trees. I told Gary to get inside so he wouldn't get hurt in case anything flew up on the balcony. Gary, who still thought it was gunfire, was saying, "Call 9-1-1! Mom, call 9-1-1!" I knew I was going to call the police to report the little rats that set off a firework so close to buildings, but then I took Gary's advice when I saw a small fire in the pine needles below. I told the 9-1-1 operator what happened and hung up. Gary and I watched the fire get bigger for a minute, and then I called 9-1-1 back to let them know the fire was getting REALLY BIG, REALLY FAST. She let me know the trucks were on the way. I hung up, and three seconds later the pine trees literally exploded in flames. I saw the writing on the wall, so I threw my bike into our living room (I hoped that only our balcony would get it), grabbed Gary, his shoes that were by the door, and my purse (in case we needed a hotel later), then RAN out the door barefoot to our parking lot screaming "GO, GO, GO!!!!!" the entire way. By this time the entire complex could see smoke and flames, and a couple of guys from other buildings heroically went to bang on the doors of the building to make sure everybody got out. (All the top floor people bolted when they saw what was going on after hearing me scream.) After what seemed like an eternity, the fire crews arrived and put out the flames. The only thing that happened to the inside of our apartment was dirty carpets from fire fighters walking around checking the attic crawl spaces for any smoldering ashes. And the apartment manager had that cleaned up later in the afternoon. Thank God we didn't go to mass and I didn't get my shower... no one would have seen the fire until it was already HUGE! And thank God the wind was blowing just right: the arson investigator said that if it had varied just a little more, our building really would have gone up in smoke.

Our charred pine trees.
Our apartment is on top. Gary's bedroom windows are the open ones.
Because of the wind direction, our neighbors unfortunately saw more damage.
You can see how close flames got. The tree on the right stands against our building and it has charred pine needles underneath it!!!!