Man may face charges after child burned with fireworks

Leominster police are seeking complaints charging a New Hampshire man with reckless endangerment of a child, after two stray Roman candles the man lit during a Fourth of July celebration hit his 3-year-old toddler, causing severe burns.

A clerk magistrate may take up to a month to determine whether to charge Sean Maloney, 37, of Merrimack, N.H. with endangerment and firearms possession, said Tim Connolly, spokesman for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early.

The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. Friday at the family's summer getaway home on Lake Shore Drive, along Lake Samoset in Leominster. According to authorities, the toddler was sitting in a swing at the house when his father lit the Roman candles on a boat dock and positioned them in a bucket. The bucket tipped backwards and the explosives fired and hit the child, authorities said. The boy suffered second and third-degree burns on his hands and legs and was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

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