The force of the blast threw Jake 10 feet in the air and knocked him out. When he regained consciousness, he saw his thumb and fingers hanging off his hand.
Jake had spotted an onion bomb firework on a grass verge near his home in Oldham and decided to light it.
“My friend said, ‘Don’t do that. It might blow up’. I didn’t listen and suddenly I saw a big green and white flash,” says Jake.
When he came round he was in the middle of the road. "I had tunnel vision and couldn’t stop looking at my hand. My thumb and fingers were hanging off.
"I could see all the bones and nerves. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was blood everywhere. I stood up and ran to a shop and shouted for someone to call an ambulance.”
Complex sugery
Jake, who was 15 when the accident happened in 2006, was in shock when he arrived at hospital.
He says: “I was really scared and kept thinking I was going to lose my hand. When my mum and dad arrived and saw me, they started crying.”
Jake spent nine hours having complex micro-surgery at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital to try to save his hand.
Doctors warned him that he may lose some feeling in his hand and could face more operations.
The delicate procedure to restore the damaged tissue and nerves was a success and after three days the teenager was able to move the tips of his fingers.
Jake says: “I had been so worried as I had been warned that if my hand didn't heal then it would have to be amputated.”
'That's all gone'
Two years later, Jake can now write again. But he has had to abandon his dream of becoming a graphic designer as he has lost the use of his thumb.
“I was the best at drawing when I was at school and I planned to go to art college,” he says. “That’s all gone.”
Now Jake is warning other teenagers against letting off fireworks irresponsibly as bonfire night approaches.
He says: “Don’t do it. I nearly lost my hand and it was the worst experience of my life. If you fool around with fireworks the same thing could easily happen to you and worse.
"I will never go near a firework again and I have told all my friends not to mess with fireworks.
"Don't take them if they're offered to you, don't mess around with fireworks and never go back to a firework if you don't know whether it's gone off or not."
