DETROIT — As authorities investigate a fireworks incident Sunday connected to the death in Novi, Michigan, of Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks, safety advocates have previously warned that pyrotechnics should be handled by professionals.

Novi Fire Chief Jeff Johnson declined Tuesday to comment on the incident or make any comments about fireworks safety, noting that there was an ongoing investigation of the fatal explosion.

Details of the blast and exactly how the 24-year-old goalie died are still emerging, but news accounts so far indicate he suffered chest trauma caused by a fireworks mortar blast at the Novi home of former Red Wings goalie Manny Legace.

In addition to Kivlenieks, a 41-year-old man in Indiana also died in a fireworks explosion. There, a mortar shell exploded inside the firework’s tubing, The Journal Gazette reported. Autopsy and toxicology results were pending.

Fireworks also were responsible for four injuries at a block party in Toledo, according to media reports.

The Novi incident raises a number of questions, including what explosive was used, what — or who — may have caused the shell to go off so close to Kivlenieks, and whether any alcohol or other intoxicating substances were involved.

Police previously have said the fireworks were launched from grassy area from nine firework tubes. After the seventh shot, the platform tipped. The eighth went over the hot tub and the last one hit Kivlenieks. Police said they do not believe that the person launching the fireworks was consuming alcohol.

The American Pyrotechnics Association defines a mortar as a tube from which certain aerial devices are fired into the air. The firework is a shell that is propelled into the air and then detonates. In this case, it appears, the firework was misdirected or misfired.

In addition, the tragic blast also seems to lend support to safety advocates who say that fireworks in the hands of folks who are not trained to use them are not safe.

“Summer is synonymous with barbecues, parades and fireworks,” the National Safety Council has previously noted, but added that everyone should enjoy fireworks conducted by professionals, and not do them at home. “They may be legal but they are not safe.”

The Michigan Fireworks Safety Act, signed into law in late 2011, allowed the sale and use of consumer-grade fireworks in the state, and officials annually warn of the dangers and risks involved in using them and to use every safety precaution possible.

State law requires that consumer-grade fireworks only be ignited from personal property.

It is illegal to ignite fireworks on public property including streets and sidewalks or another person’s property without their express permission. And, state law makes it illegal to discharge fireworks when intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

A nonprofit safety advocacy group, the Safety Council urges leaving fireworks to professionals and that even sparklers, which account for a quarter of all firework emergency room visits, “are a lot more dangerous than most people think.”

Still, that has not stopped folks from lighting them up and firing them off. And a privately-funded and operated Fourth of July fireworks show in the small village of Newberry in the Upper Peninsula even sparked momentary controversy.

The issue was resolved when local business owners offered the use of their land for the show.

But data clearly shows that fireworks are dangerous.

Last year, there was an estimated 15,600 non-occupational, fireworks-related injuries, or 4.7 injuries per 100,000 people, treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments, the most since 2005, according to a report released late last month by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Moreover, that report showed a 50% increase in deaths and injuries from the year before.

Novi Police Lt. Jason Meier said Kivlenieks was in a hot tub with others when fireworks were launched in the hockey player’s direction and “accidentally went off.” An autopsy Monday indicated the cause of death was a percussive injury to internal organs as a result of a fireworks blast.

Paramedics were dispatched just after 10 p.m. and upon arrival, found the goalie.

He was taken to Ascension Providence Hospital in Novi, where he was pronounced dead.