Let’s be cautious when using fireworks

For the past fortnight there has been a lot of testing; it was easy to see children lighting fireworks without any supervision whatsoever, and without any thought of safety. How we have escaped a tragedy is a mystery. One man in Beitbridge, as we reported earlier this week, lost two of his fingers when a firecracker exploded in his hands.
We have even seen fireworks lit in busy bus terminuses and in the midst of the crowds at the southern end of First Street Mall. It appears Zimbabwe has no safety standards and no specific laws for fireworks; if it can be sold in a shop it can be lit anywhere, any time with no risk of legal action. But there are plenty of other risks.
The most obvious dangers are burns by those holding fireworks, being hit by burning debris, and being hit by falling rockets. Many countries, after treating injured people after fireworks displays or after dealing with people lighting smaller fireworks in their gardens, have drawn up safety rules. Most of these are common sense and should be adopted by Zimbabweans even when there is no legal requirement to do so.
Display fireworks, the sort that are used in major displays, almost always need someone licenced to use them and have special rules. These are not available in Zimbabwean shops, but what are termed “consumer fireworks” or “garden fireworks” are readily available.
Here most experts and most laws believe that nothing should be lit unless all spectators, garden walls and the like are at least eight metres away. And since the fireworks in Zimbabwean shops are designed to meet these safety rules that seems a good place to start. This means that everyone, except the person lighting the firework, must be eight metres away, and that no portion of a neighbour’s garden, or a road, can be less than eight metres away.
Fireworks should be kept separate, so that a misfire cannot cause a much larger explosion. If a fuse splutters out the firework should be destroyed and no attempt made to relight it. Rockets should be launched from a bottle set in the ground and should be launched at an angle of 10 to 15 degrees from the vertical. Rockets should not be used unless you are sure that the falling stick will not land in someone else’s garden.
Children should not be allowed to play with fireworks; they are not toys.
Most fireworks have instructions. These should be read. Sometimes fuses are hidden or protected and there is only one safe way to expose them. It is a good idea to have a fire extinguisher handy. All drivers are now supposed to have one in their car, and that can be brought into the garden for the fireworks party. But even a bucket of water is better than nothing. Everyone needs to remember that fireworks use explosions and burning to produce their effects, and that even though “garden” fireworks have small explosions, no explosion can be 100 percent safe.
Pets are a problem. Some dogs and cats can live with fireworks; others are terrified of them. Pet-owners should bring their pets inside over New Year’s Eve. But that does not help when people “test” or let off fireworks outside acceptable times. Perhaps, Zimbabwe needs laws that fireworks can only be used by the public on Independence Eve and New Year’s Eve. Sometimes fireworks scare a lot of people; they can sound like a gunshot to the non-expert, that is most people.
Special displays, on these evenings or any other time, should be notified to neighbours well in advance, and that means leaflets in letter boxes not just a notice in the street. Even those planning on shooting off a small box of fireworks tonight could do worse than tell the neighbours in advance. No one wants to be a killjoy. But potentially dangerous and polluting fun needs to be kept safe, not just for those who use fireworks but also for those in the neighbourhood.
This is not difficult. In fact opponents of fireworks bans in some cities and states have produced statistics that show that correctly used, and that is important, fireworks are safer than riding a bicycle in traffic, although in Zimbabwe that is not saying much.
So we hope that people will be a lot more careful than they have been over the last couple of weeks, and that everyone can have their fun without taking their children or themselves or their neighbours to hospital tonight.