Fireworks incidents kept emergency services busy, with at least two people seriously injured. Photo / Duncan Brown
Fireworks incidents kept emergency services busy, with at least two people seriously injured. Photo / Duncan Brown
A 20-year-old man with serious face injuries was taken to Southland Hospital after being hit directly in the eye with a firework last night.
The incident was one of many which kept emergency services busy around the country in the lead-up to Guy Fawkes night tonight.
The man was takenfrom Waikaka, just north of Gore, to Southland Hospital in Invercargill in the early hours of this morning.
He will be transferred to a different hospital today because he has a serious eye injury after a rocket was shot directly in his face, a St John southern communications shift manager said.
Further north, a male fell into a bonfire in Pukekohe, south of Auckland, suffering serious injuries.
He was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition after emergency services were called about 8.30pm.
A St John northern communications shift manager said this morning the patient had burns to his arm.
Fire service northern communications shift manager Scott Osmond said firefighters were called to about a dozen fireworks-related incidents overnight but the Pukekohe incident was the only major event.
Southern fire communications shift manager Brent Dunn said he couldn't yet put a figure on the number of callouts his area had responded to, but said it was a busy night.
"There were quite a few fireworks calls, which we'd expect."
Selwyn, North Canterbury and Dunedin were the busiest areas for callouts, he said.
In the bottom half of the North Island, about half a dozen callouts were fireworks-related, fire's central communications shift manager said.
