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Many serious injuries can result from fireworks: ER24

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Emergency medical service provider, ER24’s Russel Meiring says many serious injuries can result from fireworks, from suffering severe burn wounds to amputations.

Many children are being left unsupervised to discharge fireworks. This exposes them to serious danger and the risk of suffering severe injuries including losing limbs.

Fireworks can also be extremely distressing to animals and pets. Despite stricter laws being put in place, many fireworks dealers continue to sell them unlawfully and in violation of safety by-laws.

Meiring says, “We have attended to numerous injuries in the past where children as well as adults have sustained immense trauma to their hand and face when the fireworks have gone off pre-emptively and have injured the people seriously.”

Animals

It is not only humans that can suffer serious injuries from the discharging of fireworks, animals, and pets are also at increased risk. There have been cases where individuals have thrown lit fireworks at pets or fired shooters directly at them, leading to severe injuries.

The National Council of SPCA’s Kesh Nair says, “The use of fireworks is a major issue in the world of animal welfare. It causes many animals to become stressed and displaced and this includes wild animals. Countless animals across the country are brought into our shelters during this time in a state of absolute panic because they got lost and injured in the midst of the setting of fireworks.”

Nair says during a state of panic, many animals escape from the properties they are kept on placing them at risk of being run over by vehicles or injuring themselves.

“One of the cases that we dealt with a couple of years ago was a dog that actually jumped through a window, and he injured himself quiet badly because of the glass obviously. It just goes to show they would do pretty much anything to get away from the bangs and the flashes because it is scary for them.”

Raids

The Johannesburg Emergency Management Services says they will continue to conduct raids on fireworks dealers and distributors to check for compliance and ensure they store fireworks safely and securely.

JEM Spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi has urged the public to buy fireworks from compliant dealers.

“When you walk into the shop they should have a compliance certificates and over and above that, the dealer who is compliant would not just hang the fireworks on the wall, these fireworks will be stored in a glass cabinet because we do not allow these fireworks to be hung around the wall as they are highly flammable, you might have a fire incident there and the whole building will be on fire.”

He says those selling fireworks on the side of the road must also have a permit, failing which – they will be arrested.

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