Officials warn against an incendiary array offered on Web

Handheld sparklers, often thought to be harmless fun, burn at 1,800 degrees or more and can quickly ignite clothing, officials said. (ISTOCK)

MILTON - Teenagers attracted to flashy online advertising promising "Double, Double Trouble" and "Pure Seduction" are using the Web to buy fireworks or, worse, to create their own more powerful, more dangerous explosives.

"They have been on the Internet . . . and they have found recipes that lead to them making explosive devices," Stephen D. Coan, the state fire marshal, said in an interview yesterday after a press conference about fireworks safety.

On Sunday, Needham police said they found a dangerous device known online as an "Axe bomb" near a school. And in April, a Lynn store illegally sold fireworks to a young Swampscott teenager who tried to combine them to make a bigger explosive device and lost the tips of two fingers when it ignited, the Department of Fire Services said.

With Fourth of July a week away, officials issued a strong warning yesterday as they demonstrated the power of even the smallest firecrackers at Houghton's Pond. Styrofoam dummies were charred, dismembered, and, in one case, destroyed by the explosions.

The use of fireworks is illegal in Massachusetts without a license. But many people buy them outside the state where they are legally sold or get them through catalogs or on the Internet.

"We view the Internet as a major problem," said Coan, standing in front of more than $1,000 worth of confiscated bottle rockets, missiles, and Roman candles.

Video-sharing websites are spreading information quickly among young people on how to make and get fireworks, said Sergeant Robert L. Bachelder of the State Police, who is assigned to the fire marshal's office.

"A lot of kids on YouTube make IEDs [improvised explosive devices], and they often use the remnants of fireworks," Bachelder said. "And then they display their work back on YouTube."

Needham police found one such device made of a milk carton and several metal containers of Axe deodorant Sunday in a field near High Rock School, Lieutenant Christopher Baker, department spokesman, said in a phone interview.

"It appeared whoever made it tried to light it, and it didn't explode," he said. "But it looked like some pretty dangerous stuff."

The Fire Services Department is trying to reach the tech-savvy generation by sponsoring a YouTube video contest about the danger of homemade explosives. Information about the contest can be found on the department's website, mass.gov/dfs/osfm/fireprevention.

Videos online detail the threats of gasoline and other chemicals, but many people don't realize that fireworks can be just as hazardous, said Colleen Ryan of the Sumner Redstone Burn Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Handheld sparklers burn at temperatures reaching higher than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, Coan said.

In Massachusetts, 677 major fires and explosions, totaling more than $1.5 million in losses, have occurred in the past decade as a result of fireworks, according to the Fire Services Department.

Christopher Baxter can be reached at cbaxter@globe.com.