SALISBURY, N.C. -- An accident involving homemade firecrackers cost a Rowan County teenager three of his fingers.

Salisbury police say 17-year-old Byron Brush Jr. was seriously injured while trying to make explosives with smokeless gun powder in the bathroom of his home on Newsome Road.

Smokeless gun powder is used to reload ammunition and can be bought legally.

“There's an abundance of respect and technical caution associated with messing with gunpowder,” explained Salisbury Deputy Police Chief Steve Whitley. “You don't have to have a fire to activate it. Actually friction can set it off. There's a variety of things that can cause it to react.

“And of course the reaction can be quite disastrous as in the case with this young man here.”

Police said Brush did not appear to have any criminal intentions for the explosives.