Firework restrictions should limit usage

File photo / NZ Herald

Limits should be placed on when fireworks can be used, not just when they are purchased, the Fire Service has told Parliament.

A Parliamentary select committee is considering a 25,000-signature petition calling for a total ban on the private use of fireworks.

The Fire Service's national advisor on risk management Todd O'Donoghue told the committee this morning that if it did not agree to a ban, there were other measures that could reduce the harms of fireworks.

He said fireworks were being used all year round, not just at Guy Fawkes, and Parliament could introduce restrictions on when they could be set off.

"Just like they're only for sale for three or four days, maybe it's only those three or four days and a week later so that people can celebrate the intent of the Guy Fawkes without storing them away and using them at all sorts of other times during the year."

Mr O'Donoghue also suggested a limit on the strength of fireworks. He said there was growing concern about manufacturers making more powerful fireworks, and about the huge heights they were reaching.

"I believe when skyrockets were ruled out in 2007, a lot of ground-based fireworks [began] firing things a lot higher.

"I think manufacturers have worked on the efficiency of what's in those items to create the visual spectacle that people are missing out on.

He said if fireworks were reaching greater heights then their debris was landing over a much larger circumference.

"Perhaps there could be a limitation even in the height which some ground-based fireworks can fire, and the temperatures that the debris which fall from them can reach."

Mr O'Donoghue said fireworks were misused by a minority of New Zealanders, and it was up to the community to decide whether the responsible majority should be penalised with a total ban.

"I guess my concern is that the minority of people who use them inappropriately are putting at risk the responsible people."

The Fire Service has lobbied for a total ban on fireworks since 2004.

In 2007, the purchase age for fireworks was raised and the period of time for buying them was reduced.

Mr O'Donoghue said between 2006 and 2014, there had been a 59 per cent decrease in fireworks-related incidents.

However, the number of structure fires caused by fireworks only fell by 40 per cent.

"For us, those are the cases where there is a much higher risk to the amount of property loss, the dollar value that this is costing, and also to the well-being of people when they're inside those structures."

NZH ml