Fireworks night victims

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 6

Fireworks night victims

PA Auckland A Glenfield man is in Auckland Hospital with moderately serious bums to his face, "arms and legs after trying to relight a Guy Fawkes bonfire with petrol on Sunday evening. Mr Alfred Bertram Heather, aged 28, was progressing favourably in the burns unit at Middlemore Hospital yesterday. Another Auckland man described Guy Fawkes night as “a night of terror.” For nearly three hours on, Sunday evening Mr J. Ram-i say, of Sandringham, a semiretired waterfront worker,.

aged 55, who suffers from leg ulcers, said he was under siege from local hooligans. Mr Ramsay lives bv himself and can only hobble around his house on bandaged, legs. The first act of “terror” came when his letter box was stuffed with fire crackers and blown to pieces, he said. ' About 30 minutes later hej caught two young people try-, ing to push a lighted sky rocket and fire crackers j through a broken window at! i the front of the house. , He could not chase them, but when he shouted at them (they ran off before any dam-

age could be done. Mr Ramsay said.

The Auckland Central Fire Station answered 52 calls between 7 p.m. and 12 p.m., all of which were attributed to fires caused by fireworks. In Tauranga, a girl, aged eight, was admitted to hospital with eye injuries after being burned by fireworks.

A hospital spokesman said that the injuries might be (serious and the girl was to I be examined by an eve [specialist. The case was the only one reported in Tauranga this (year. ‘ The fire service in Roto-

rua reported its busiest week-end for many years, but no serious fires. Most of the problems were caused by bonfires being lit too close to scrub or left unattended. In Christchurch, Guy Fawkes night was the quietest for many years, according to the Fire Service. Firemen attended only two calls to fireworks-related fires. Both were minor, and caused no damage.

“Last year we had 20 or more calls, but peotle seem to have become more careful,” said a Fire Service spokesman.