Do people ever get hurt by rockets (fireworks) returning to ground?

[Goodfrock]

There's a huge one sticking out of my lawn this morning. All's well that ends well, there was no-one outside and no one hurt, but it occurred to me that if it had hit someone or something it would have done a lot of damage, but you never hear of that so does it never actually happen?

Our next door neighbour used to light them in his hands and set them off in their enclosed yard, with their small children running around in delight. They would whizz around banging off the walls (the fireworks, not the kids).

The first time I saw this, I was at the window with my hands over my mouth in horror, they looked up and laughed at my reaction! Absolutely lovely people but absolutely crackers. They would joke that it was nothing compared to their homeland (war torn country).

I'm still gobsmacked no one was hurt!

It was one of those giant sized whisky bottles - about 4.5 litres I think - that came from a local pub. Much heavier than something like a glass milk bottle (showing my age now!) so thought it would be ok. Obviously not and we learned the hard way.

Rockets badly used can cause damage. Rockets sensibly used can cause damage. This is why in the displays we do for the PTA we have switched to mortars. Rockets are passé in the fireworks world!

I was asking really about the debris falling back to ground after a successful launch, rather than accidents with badly launched rockets.