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A baby girl suffered serious burns when an out-of-control firework flew into her pram and exploded last night.
The one-year-old was with her parents who were letting off fireworks outside their Welcome Bay home home at 9pm when the accident occurred.
Tauranga St John Ambulance advanced paramedic Rob Burgess said the baby received a combination of full, partial and superficial thickness burns to her lower back and buttocks, covering about 8 per cent of her body.
Baby Mercedez is today undergoing surgery at Waikato Hospital. She will require skin grafts.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said at the weekend that a total ban on firework sales could be considered, and Mount Maunganui Fire Service station officer Lindsay Nicol said that in light of the latest incident he thought it was time fireworks were banned for the public.
"I think it does need to be in the hands of professionals," he said.
Of the three fire communications centres around the country Auckland last night received 150 emergency calls in total and responded to 70 incidents, Wellington received 46 fireworks related calls and Christchurch received just 28 calls all night from the South Island, where the weather was bad.
The girl's grandmother, who did not wish to be identified, today told the Bay of Plenty Times the family would be making a formal complaint about the device, which they believe was faulty.
"She didn't sleep all night and they've had to put her on morphine," the woman said.
Mercedez' 23-year-old mother, had only yesterday arrived home from hospital after giving birth to her second child - another daughter.
She and Mercedez' father, 25, are today at the hospital bedside of their eldest daughter.
The grandmother said the family gathering last night to let off fireworks was meant to be a fun occasion. Mercedez was at least 15m away from where the devices were being let off, on the roadside.
She was sitting at the top of the family's driveway in her pushchair watching when the accident happened.
"She was clapping and laughing," her grandmother said.
"I've never liked them [fireworks] so I was inside watching ... I wanted to bring her upstairs but she was enjoying it so much."
The firework that caused the incident was called a Colour Pearl. It was meant to shoot "flaming balls" vertically but instead they began to shoot sideways.
"Three went up in the air and did their thing but then one went flying across the road. No sooner had that one come flying across another one landed in the back of the pram and exploded," the grandmother said.
The explosion caught the back of Mercedez's nappy on fire and ignited her top and the blanket keeping her warm.
"By the time it had exploded everybody rushed to her but it was too late. It just happened so fast. We panicked. She was screaming. Her father grabbed her and put her under a cold shower.
"The ambulance only took 10 minutes but it felt like hours," she said.
The grandmother, who was this morning preparing to leave for Waikato Hospital with other family, said she would not buy fireworks again and was adamant her daughter would feel the same.
"We will definitely be doing something about it. We can't let it happen to other babies," she said.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES, NZ HERALD STAFF
