Retailers Warned About Fireworks

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 1

Retailers Warned About Fireworks

Although Guy Fawkes Day is three weeks off, Christchurch shops have large stocks of fireworks on display and already crackers are being set off by children in many suburbs.

The Chief Fire Officer (Mr L. R. Osmond) last evening said that some retailers were breaking the Explosive Goods Regulations (1959) in the storage and display of fireworks. He pointed out that city by-laws forbade the setting off of fireworks in the streets and parks. “I am no spoil sport and enjoy a properly controlled display of fireworks as much as anyone,” Mr Osmond said. “However, I do earnestly appeal to the users of fireworks to take common-sense precautions both for their own sake and for those near them.

“I can say now that somebody is going to be injured within the next three weeks, seriously burned. I appeal to parents to keep their children under observation so that they do not endanger themselves or their friends. Mr Osmond said the regulations stated that fireworks must not be displayed where sunlight could shine on them; that they must be covered, and that they must not be

displayed where any person in a shop could have access to them. “Some retailers in Christchurch are breaking these regulations. I have instructed the brigade inspecting officer to keep a close watch and report breaches to the council’s explosives inspector. “It is easy to imagine a lout dropping a cigarette butt in a large quantity of fireworks displayed uncovered in a crowded store on a Friday evening. The probable result in serious injury through burns and stampeding is horrible to think of. This could, of course, happen accidentally, but the result could be just as disastrous. “Fireworks displayed where they can be easily stolen could lead to children suffering serious, possibly fatal injury, because they were tempted by a display that breached the regulations,” said Mr Osmond

“Fireworks are all right—in their proper place—and grand entertainment when properly supervised,” said Mr Osmond.