A US man celebrating the Fourth of July holiday has died after he launched a firework from the top of his head, authorities said.

Maine officials reported the man, 22-year-old Devon Staples, had been drinking and setting off fireworks in a friend’s backyard, in the small eastern Maine city of Calais, when he placed a fireworks tube on his head and it exploded,” Associated Press reported.

Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said Mr Staples was killed instantly.

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Mr McCausland said his death was the first fireworks fatality in Maine since the state legalised fireworks on January 1, 2012.

Mr Staples’ brother, Cody, told the New York Daily News that he was standing less than two metres away from his brother when he died.

Devon (pictured) was not the kind of person who would do something stupid, brother Cody said. Photo: Twitter

Cody said his brother, who had recently become engaged, was joking around at the time and did not intend to set off the firework.

He said his brother was holding a lighter and it “accidentally caused the firework to go off”, the newspaper reported.

“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,” Cody said.

“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.”

Cody said his brother lived in Orlando, Florida, where he worked as a dog walker. He previously worked at the Walt Disney World theme park, where he was employed to dress up as various Disney characters.

“He was someone everyone should want to be like when they grow up,” Cody told the New York Daily News

“He was my younger brother and I looked up to him.”

State fire marshals were also investigating several other Fourth of July fireworks incidents involving injuries, Associated Press reported.

In 2011, lawmakers voted to repeal a 1949 law banning fireworks, reasoning the industry would create jobs and generate additional revenue.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 10,500 people were injured by fireworks in 2014, and at least 11 died from their injuries.