Wednesday, 21st May 2008
Fireworks
Tougher penalties proposed
A Bill proposing tougher penalties for the illegal manufacture and storage of fireworks will be moved in Parliament early next week.
The penalty for unlicensed manufacture of fireworks, for instance, will go up from a petty fine of between €76 and €465 and a maximum of six months' imprisonment to a fine of between €2,500 and €25,000 and imprisonment ranging from two to five years.
The proposals seek to amend the archaic 1937 Explosives Ordinance, which has seen little change since being enacted despite the fact that the industry and fireworks manufacturing techniques have evolved beyond comparison.
Besides raising the stakes for rogue enthusiasts, the Bill will also introduce provisions such as allowing the courts to confiscate or suspend the licence attached to a property used for the illegal manufacture of fireworks.
The change will come in tandem with the setting up of an inspection unit which - for the first time - will carry out random checks on fireworks factories across the island. The unit should be up and running within a couple of weeks, in time for the festa season, when factories usually go into overdrive to meet the deadlines.
The changes come as part of a reform promised by the new Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici - who is responsible for the industry - after the latest tragedy in Naxxar, where illegally-stored fireworks exploded in the middle of a residential area killing two people and destroying three homes.
Under the new legislation, anyone caught storing or making fireworks in an unlicensed place will face fines of between €15,000 and €50,000 and imprisonment of six months to two years. The current fine is between €46 and €465.
More significantly, storing or producing fireworks in an unlicensed place will become an aggravating factor in a case of manslaughter or homicide that is the result of an explosion in an illegal factory.
Other significant changes include the barring of probation in cases involving fireworks offences and the court will be empowered to order people found guilty of fireworks offences to pay compensation to potential victims even while criminal proceedings are under way.
The Bill does not deal with the building specifications of fireworks factories or their distance from inhabited area, which is regulated by the 1937 law. However, a commission is soon to be set up, a ministry spokesman told The Sunday Times last week, precisely to make recommendations on these issues.
The law at present lays down minimum distances between factory rooms where explosives are stored, for instance, or between factories and inhabited areas. Such distances were calculated on the amount of explosives held in firework factories in the late 1930s. Since then that amount has grown exponentially, without the factories' structures adapting accordingly.
The Bill should be given a first reading either on Monday or Tuesday.
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Comments
As the current laws concerning fireworks stand, in general every feast is allowed a maximum of 13 hours throughout the whole festive period, during which aerial fireworks can be let off. Now, since certain villages celebrate two feasts, every village does not get more than 26 hours during which fireworks can be let off per year.
I am no expert in psychology, however I find it hard to believe that 26 hours worth of fireworks per year, make a person 'short tempered', 'pungatious' and 'agressive'. And please do not bring forward the argument that these displays go on for four months. Realistically the high level of decibels reached by certain petards only affect each person for brief moments during one or two feasts at most throughout the whole four months period.
My final appeal goes to fireworks enthusiasts: manufacture petards only with the allowed chemicals and to the size which is established by law! It makes no sense to manufacture more powerful petards since these may prove harmful to others, and to us as well.
On every book i have on fireworks written by professional pyrothecnicians, they include Malta as unique in the world and, who has fireworks as his passion, it is a must for him to go to malta at least once in his life.
the importation of such dangerous chemicals is supposed to be regulated and even professional people that know with what they are dealing in fully licensed laboratories have to obtain permits for importation of chemicals. so the same must apply for these people that most of them does not know exactly with what they are dealing. I would like to ask anyone over here how he or she will feel if someone from his family dies because of some irresponsible person that stores or does fireworks next to his house? will anyone say that it does not matter for the sake of someone's hobby or tradition?
We shall have a competent authority that works closely with the manufacturers to assess and adapt the best way fireworks are manufactured and let off.
Illegal manufacturing and storage of fireworks has got nothing to do with the issue, that has to be simply curbed out by enforcement. With respect to EU law, let's just be practical; Malta can never follow and enforce EU law to the letter in all issues. Should this be done; then Malta will not remain a place to live in........after all no other EU member state does it.
Many sites also encourage fireworks lovers to come over and visit Malta in Summer and enjoy at least one of the pyrotechnic shows which are set up as part of our village feasts. So are we to ban part of our heritage, which Maltese pyrotachnicians have developed over the years, as Mr. Briffa is suggesting? I hope not.
Instead I suggest to Mr. Briffa to change his mentality, and try to accept other people's interests, and not try to ban those things which annoy him. The way forward does not lie in banning these types of fireworks but in implementing better regulations which promote a safer pyrothecnic industry for all. It is only through constructive dialogue which such aims can be achieved.
Is it fair that we have to put up with these bangs from May to September every weekend if not practically everyday at 8am ,noon and late at night.? On feast days and on the eve and, sometimes, even on the eve of the eve, one can't even watch TV in peace or even make conversation at home; the bangs simply overpower the TV sound and drown people's voices. So is this fair? Doesn't the common good dictate the banning of petards?
But ye I forgot in this country adopting proactive approaches is not allowed, instead we just focus on penalties fines and changing the laws, exactly what you expect from the bunch of lawyers we have in parliament.
A cheap solution , which I must regret will yield only to a cheap result ..
And Mr Briffa please re think your multi millioin story and thousands of earnings by some dilettante ?? There is the odd one who does it for business but the vast majority is forking out hard earned cash to make up for the sky rocketing prices of chemicals used in the manufacture of coloured shells which everyone seems to enjoy.
So Please show some respect for all those who work legally in the appropriate places, For those who put them selfs in danger, make many personal sacrifices, spend their free time, take vacation leave from work to go doing fireworks,,, FREE OF CHARGE... WITHOUT ANY PERSONAL INTEREST!!
Then when the feast arrives nobody says nothing!! Every Body goes to see and have fun watching the pyrotechnic shows held in every feast!!
To conclude, please learn to know what respect is!!
I would like to wish all the best result for this year to all fireworks enthusiasts, and fingered cross that every little sacrifice that they did during the year gives them satisfaction during those 7 seconds that the shell is being fired!!
Well done Guys!!
Maybe the Malta Standards Authority should start taking these fireworks issues seriously. We need a serious Authority independent from the government and police that issues Fireworks Discharge Licensing and that monitors the sound and air quality during the discharge of fireworks. We have enough kids with asthma and do not need to expose kids to more dangerous chemicals in the air and poison their lungs while a few fireworks die hards damage their ears and lungs.
If the fireworks enthusiasts do not show respect to the Maltese and Gozitan communities within a few years, fireworks will be a thing of the past when they realize all the EU regulations they are breaking. It is in their best interest to make sure that fireworks manufacture and discharging is within the law and make sure that it is enjoyable and safe to all.