Editorial

The fireworks festival last week celebrated the art of pyrotechnics. It came just days after yet another fireworks factory blast that, fortunately, did not claim any lives or caused injuries.

The beautiful fireworks that light up the night sky during festivals, religious feasts and other celebrations inspire awe and admiration. Capable hands can turn a mixture of chemicals into an ever fresh joyful spectacle of creativity and artistry.

However, fireworks also have their ugly side and, whatever is said and done, their manufacture remains a very risky practice. Indeed, the loss of life and limb as a result of fireworks accidents, mainly during the production phase, is surely a cause of concern.

The issue has two basic considerations. First, there are the continued risks that have to be faced during the manufacturing and handling of fireworks. Then, there are the precautions that need to be taken when storing, transporting and letting off fireworks. In both cases, the point of departure should be a consensus on a balanced diet of sound regulations, training and coaching that stimulate and ensure the fullest understanding possible of the risk factors involved, accompanied by all sensible precautions, self-discipline and administrative control to minimise risks as much as possible.

Fireworks remain explosive and burn at high temperatures. So they need extreme careful handling all the way through their production and firing. It must constantly be kept in mind that not even full competence, skill, experience, responsibility, presence of mind, patience, prudence and caution can guarantee that the risk of potential hazards is fully contained. There is always the risk of something happening out of the blue, perhaps when least expected and beyond the grasp of human anticipation.

All this emphasises the need to further ensure that, along with all possible legal and technical safeguards regarding the production stage, there should also invariably be suitable access facilities to fireworks factories for fire engines, civil defence teams and ambulances in case of an emergency. One shudders to think, for instance, what the situation could have been had people been injured in the latest fireworks factory accident, considering that the road was too narrow to allow even ambulances to go through. How could the authorities allow such an "explosive" situation, just as they seem unable to deal with the hot issue of fireworks factories situated too close to inhabited areas?

Another cause for concern is the nuisance caused by very loud petards, especially where and when these are let off in large quantities, occasionally perhaps also beyond the time stipulated by regulations.

All those who, for a long time now, have been justifiably soliciting better society-friendly regulations in this area must have welcomed the announcement that new regulations are being drawn up. The aim is to reduce the size of such petards, in a bid to dampen their force, and also to limit the number of such loud petards fired in one session to six, apart from the three-minute salute such as that at the start of the procession during the village feast.

Considering, among other things, that, according to an explosives expert, the proposed reduction in the size of petards means they would no longer be heard from other villages, the new regulations should prove to be a much appreciated step in the right direction, especially if enforcement is efficient and effective enough. That would benefit both the manufacturers and the admirers of fireworks.