Man dies as he tries to launch firework from top of his head during celebration (Photos)

A man died instantly after reportedly attempting to launch a firework from the top of his head while celebrating the Fourth of July.

Devon Staples, 22, had been drinking with friends in a rear garden when the apparent stunt went fatally wrong.

Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety in Calais, eastern Maine on the Canadian border, said Mr Staples had placed “a fireworks mortar tube on his head and set it off,” killing him instantly.

His brother Cody Staples saw the horrific incident from just five feet away.

He told the New York Daily Times it was a freak event and Devon had been holding a lighter which made it go off “by accident.”

He said: “I was the first one who got there. There was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there.

“It was a freak accident. But Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh.”