Countywide : Firm Makes Safe Toys for Fourth

A company in Ventura offers alternative fireworks for the Fourth of July--noisy, colorful toys that won’t blow off a finger or put out an eye.

Children can stomp on a nylon bubble mat that pops like firecrackers, twirl a spray of glowing fiber-optic threads, blow a balloon that whistles, and shoot metallic pompons in the air.

“We’d rather have a child play with FunnerWorks than to be disfigured for life,” said Natalie Joy Siman, executive director of FunnerWorks Inc.

The company, founded in 1988 by Santa Monica parents and fire officials, relies on volunteers and organizations like the Boy Scouts to sell the toys.

The company keeps 10% of the profits, and about 20% goes to the service organizations that distribute the products. The remainder are donated to burn centers across the country, Siman said. Last year, FunnerWorks contributed more than $10,000 to the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation based in Canoga Park.

FunnerWorks Inc. has a nationwide toll-free number (1-800-334-SAFE) and has sold 90,000 packages of toys this year.

FunnerWorks toys will be sold for $7.95 and $13.95 by the Open Education Parents Assn. at today’s Ventura Street Fair and by the Jaycees at the Oxnard Airport at a celebration for troops who served in the Persian Gulf.

Gladys Martines, 55, of Woodside in San Mateo County said she bought 500 boxes of FunnerWorks to give away at her Fourth of July party this year. When she was 3 years old, a group of children lit a firecracker that burned her arms, her chest, and part of her face and legs.

“I’d love to make fireworks illegal,” she said. “I was scarred so badly, I never wore bathing suits or shorts. . . .”

About 12,400 Americans reported injuries from fireworks last year, and half of them were under the age of 19, according to the National Fire Protection Assn. Fireworks killed 20 Americans last year and started 44,500 fires, causing $41 million in damages.

Siman, who spends much of her time with burned children, said she saw a 3-year-old boy scorched from head to toe by a sparkler, a form of fireworks banned in California this year. Grafted skin does not stretch or grow, and small children who are burned must have their skin replaced every three months, she said.

More than half of the injuries from sparklers happen to children under 10. When lit, the tip of a sparkler ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 degrees. Firefighters will confiscate sparklers from children this Fourth of July and hand out about 300 free boxes of FunnerWorks as compensation.