A dad says he is a “lucky, lucky boy” after a stray firework hit his leg and exploded.
Johnpaul Garvie had been enjoying Hogmanay with friends when they decided to let off a few rockets to celebrate the new year.
However the fun turned to disaster when one hit him on the leg and stuck before exploding, causing agony and a trip to hospital.
Although the incident has caused him permanent damage to his leg he says the outcome could have been a lot worse.
Johnpaul, 40, said: “ I’m a lucky, lucky, lucky boy.
“I tried to get it off with my hand, it burnt my hand a bit, but it wasn’t coming off then it exploded – it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced."
He told the Paisley Daily Express: “The first one went up fine but the second one shot directly towards me.
“I tried to get out of the road of it but it hit me in my leg and stuck there and exploded. It blew my joggers and my boxers to pieces.”
He was rushed by ambulance to Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley where an emergency operation was conducted on his injured leg.
He would later require a skin graft, with skin being taken from his left thigh to replace what was destroyed by the firework.
The incident has left Johnpaul needing crutches to get around.
Since the incident he believes the sale of fireworks should be banned and only official displays should be allowed.
The Scottish Government introduced a new law last October making it a criminal offence to supply fireworks to under-18s in an attempt to reduce the damage caused by them.
He added: “I want to get the message out there for anybody else that’s going to use fireworks to think twice – because of the dangers that they can cause, which I did not think they could. You look at my leg and it tells you everything basically.
“Make sure you go to a display. It should be illegal to buy them from the shop. I’ve had my leg damaged but, at the end of the day, it could be a life that’s lost.”
“If you buy them online, they don’t require any proof that you’re over 18, so anybody could buy them. And anyway, this was a freak accident.
“There were no kids, it was all adults, and it still happened. It doesn’t matter if you’re an adult or a kid or a pensioner or anything else – it’s going to happen.”
