Wake-up call on fireworks industry (1)

It's the festa season in Malta. On a visit to Malta, one cannot help but notice the prolonged and almost senseless series of explosions let off reputedly in honour of the saint whose feast the parish would be celebrating.

This is in stark contrast to recent events, when five men lost their lives in the pursuit of such revelry. It is also reported that the church of St Helen in Birkirkara, on whose arsenal the five men were working at the time of their premature death, will not have a display this year.

Does it take the death of men in their prime and near bankruptcy (the cost of the fireworks is considerable by any stretch of the imagination) to bring our islands to their senses? Wake up and wake up now!

It is quite obvious from the reports that have already been published that many of the men's bodies were beyond recognition, the reason for this being their proximity to the explosions as well as the size of the explosions. Lucy Calleja's description of her own experience (Fireworks Tragedies, July 10) does not leave much to the imagination either.

As a GP in Birmingham, I have worked part-time in the South Birmingham Trauma and Burns unit, which takes all the major burns victims from around Birmingham and sometimes beyond. The experience of seeing patients with near fatal and fatal burns is not one for the faint-hearted.

The men who sadly lost their lives were family men. They were sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, uncles and most of all, people in their own right intending to earn an honest wage. We should salute them for their lives, but we should not salute the reasons why they lost their right to be on this earth. The saints whose feasts are celebrated would not want loss of life "in their honour" and moreover would not want families to be so bereaved.

This tragedy must act as a wake-up call to all the fanatics that promote such events and to all the people who donate their hard-earned cash to pay for exuberant and often mindless fireworks displays. There must be a greater call for voluntary regulation, in the absence of which the government, whichever party that may be, should regulate the fireworks industry strictly from basic production, storage, extent and length of displays to health and safety of the workers as well as the public.

This may sound draconian; however, it is long overdue, keeping in mind that the latest tragedy is not the only one of its kind in living memory. One of my patients who is an English pyrotechnics expert, travelling round Europe and beyond, visiting and competing in fireworks displays, had said to me previous to this recent tragedy how laughable and cavalier the arrangements are in Malta. Do we need to lose more lives?

If parishes or various groups want to compete in a show of pyrotechnic brilliance, then there should be properly staged and regulated competitions, leaving the feast day of the saint for people to enjoy a lighter show of explosive money burning.

Wake up. Let's do something about fireworks safety in honour of all the present and previous victims of this "entertainment".