Fire Service horrified by fireworks mayhem

The Fire Service is "horrified" that mayhem started just hours into this year's Guy Fawkes fireworks sale period.

Acting Fire Service National Commander Paul McGill said figures showed that there were 317 fires over the first three days of the 10-day period - about 105 fires a day.

The second day of the sale period, Saturday, saw 143 fires, the highest number on that date since statistics began in 1994.

This compared with an average of 61 per day for the rest of October.

Fireworks had barely hit the shelves on Friday before firefighters and police were rushing to put out blazes, deal with homemade bombs and support shell-shocked homeowners, he said.

"The service is horrified that the mayhem started just hours into the sales period."

A Feilding house was the subject of a deliberate attack after a firework was thrown through a window.

Porirua police had to call out explosives disposal experts after a modified "bomb" was left at a primary school.

In Invercargill, fireworks were put into an internal access mailbox, leaving an elderly woman's house at risk of catching fire.

Mr McGill says many of the incidents could have had extremely serious consequences.

"If a firework starts a fire inside a house, it can be fatal for the occupants and very risky for the firefighters that have to put it out," he said.

"This isn't a hypothetical scenario either; last year we had a family lucky to get out of a house in Christchurch where fireworks were thrown inside and a room caught fire, and not so long ago firefighters were badly burnt following a deliberate fireworks fire in a video shop."

Mr McGill said the latest mayhem would push public opinion further in favour of a retail ban.

"It appears that the hoons are going to ruin it for everyone, because the growing number of incidents of misuse is going to become intolerable to the public very soon."

- NZPA