Topeka Man Falls From Roof While Shooting Fireworks, Dies

A 26-year-old Kansas man who climbed onto a roof to launch fireworks is dead after falling from atop his Topeka home.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Christen Locke fell from the roof after he was injured by a firework just after midnight Tuesday morning.

Topeka police Lt. Jennifer Cross says the call was originally reported as a fall but an investigation revealed the fireworks accident.

Locke was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died.

In Missouri, a rainy Fourth of July weekend kept fireworks sales down in the St. Louis area, but it also apparently kept injuries down.

Fireworks stand owners told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that sales weren't awful, but they weren't great. Public health departments don't track fireworks-related injuries, but the region's largest trauma unit, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, treated just four fireworks-related injuries over the weekend, compared to about 10 last year.