CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Every year there are dozens of people who end up at the hospital on Independence Day. It's a trend the UNC Jaycee Burn Center staff is hoping can be changed. 

• Doctors say about 80 people have showed up with injuries from fireworks in each of the last two years.
• They say even minor problems can lead to major concerns.
• Aside from burns, other injuries include eye damage or infections.

In just the last two years alone, about 80 people showed up at the burn venter for a fireworks-related injury. They make up about half of the burns treated there.

Dr. Ernest Grant says this can happen to anyone if they’re not careful, and if you get burned, there’s no home remedy that’s going to help you. You need to go to the hospital before that burn gets infected.

Sometimes the effects are minor but sometimes it can turn into a major situation.

"Several years ago, we had a gentleman who had set off a firecracker, it did not explode, and then went to pick it up, and of course then it exploded," said Grant. "That’s the other thing people make a lot of mistakes of doing is thinking 'well it didn’t go off so i’m going to try to relight it,' or see what’s going on. And when they have it in there hand that’s when it explodes, and as a result of that the person lost three fingers."

Grant says besides losing fingers, some people also received eye damage or major infections thanks to fireworks exploding the wrong way.