More students have come forward about being injured during UM’s firework shows for the 2025 Homecoming celebration on Friday, Nov. 7, and the Centennial celebration on April 8, 2025.
Maxwell Holton, an alum who graduated in December of 2024, came back to campus for the 2025 Homecoming celebration. During the fireworks show, Holton said he was standing on Fate Bridge with his back to the UC pool when a firework shell hit him in the face.
“All of a sudden, it felt like somebody elbowed me in the face. I thought someone hit me with their phone or something,” Holton said. “But then I felt my face and it was hot so I looked down.”
Holton said that he was looking around to see if anyone else felt anything and noticed a “shotgun-shell looking item” on the ground.
“It was a firework shell, so I tried to pick it up,” he said. “It was piping hot so I dropped it, but then I picked it up again.”
Holton said that the shell narrowly missed his eye and he had blisters on his face. He did not seek medical treatment or report the incident at the time, but added he will likely report it this week.
“The University advises that if a student was impacted by a firework on Friday, they should report the incident to the Division of Student Affairs at 305-284-4922, and/or UMPD at 305-284-6666,” the University of Miami said in a statement to The Hurricane.
The Hurricane’s Instagram posted on Saturday, Nov. 7 asking for information about anyone allegedly hit by the fireworks. The Hurricane also published an article about freshman Isabella Ramharakh who sent The Hurricane a video showing her being burned by the fireworks.
Since then, multiple people have come forward about injuries resulting from UM’s fireworks shows.
Daniela Herbert, an alum who graduated in 2025, said that she was burned during the Centennial celebration in April. She remembers sitting in the grassy area next to the Eaton Residential College near the trees.
“I mean it wasn’t too bad, just a couple of burns, but the fireworks looked like they were calibrated wrong and shot off at an angle instead of straight up,” Herbert said. “So the sparks fell on all of us and we all started running toward Eaton.”
A current UM architecture student who wishes to remain unnamed said that she witnessed people get injured by the fireworks last year during the Centennial celebration.
“I know people were burned because right after the first strike last year the people who were hit moved away from the area. I also decided to back up to a different spot, sitting on the architecture building stairs instead,” she said.
She was originally standing on the path between Eaton Residential College and Lake Osceola — similar to where Ramharakh and Herbert were standing when they said they were burned.
User @lisset17c commented under TMH’s Instagram post, “I was burn[ed] too, how do I report it!” The Hurricane reached out via direct message and email and has not yet received a response.
Both the unnamed student and Herbert said they saw rope around the lake this year, but they did not notice other additional safety measures.
“I feel like if this has happened twice in a row now … I can’t say [UM] handled safety well,” said Holton. “I know [UM] wants to make it special for everybody, but if they can’t make it special without securing people’s safety, they have to look into that.”
Holton encourages UM to acknowledge the safety errors and share its safety plans moving forward.