Fireworks – should we tighten regulations?

Fireworks have become a staple part of the festivities on Bonfire Night, Chinese New Year, and the Westernised New Year. In the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations in the United Kingdom, fireworks have become as much a part of the furniture as sparklers, bonfires, apple bobbing, and the age-old ritual of ‘penny for the guy’.

Why do we have fireworks?

Well, it all seems to date back to 7th century AD China during the Tang Dynasty, when gunpowder was invented (or two centuries later during the Song Dynasty, nobody is quite sure). Once gunpowder arrived in Europe, either through Marco Polo or the crusaders bringing it back, the Italians started using it for fireworks. And the rest is history.

These days, fireworks are used across the globe as a way for people to mark important days such as New Year, Independence Day in the United States of America, and Eid.

What about the Bonfire Night tradition in the UK? In November 1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow gang of conspirators conspired and failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder. To mark the anniversary of the failed plot, and demonstrate how important democracy is to the country, Bonfire Night celebrations have been held since around 1650, and fireworks have been part and parcel ever since, together with a mannequin of Guy Fawkes being thrown on the bonfire.

What are the arguments against fireworks in public?

Fireworks are pretty, with the different colour lights going into the air. But the noise they make can be frightening for animals (both domestic and wild animals) and people (especially the neurodivergent or those who have altered mentality and do not understand what is going on, people with PTSD due to having been in war situations), and they are dangerous. Each firework contains gunpowder, a powerful explosive, and the burning firework can reach temperatures of 2000℃ or more.

Every year more people get injured by fireworks. Eye and hand injuries are the most common, with ten people in the UK losing sight in an eye each year, and people losing part of their finger or hands due to firework accidents. A recent publication shows the statistics for one Chelmsford hospital, where the findings show that mainly males get injured, a lot of them younger than 18 years old.

Bonfire Night is the night that NHS Direct gets the most hits on their website of people looking for advice on how to deal with burns trauma. In 2023 there were over 8,000 hits. This tells us that far more people seek and need help than are actually present at a hospital, so the total number of recorded fireworks injuries is likely to be a lot higher than the statistics show.

Firework deaths are not uncommon in animals and people. It is not only dogs and cats that can be affected by fireworks either, through the noise, or burns if a firework is thrown at them, but for instance horses as well.

And even people get targeted, for instance by others throwing fireworks at them, or putting lit fireworks through letterboxes. That can cause a person their life.

Fireworks regulations vary across the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland having the strictest rules. And now there is a call for fireworks to be banned, or from being sold to the general public in the other nations of the Uk as well. Campaigners want fireworks to be sold only to those who have a licence. Some people want fireworks that are quiet and less powerful, and even for fireworks to be allowed only to be set off in displays by people who have a special license to do so.

A recent fatality resulted in a parliamentary petition

Recently, the call for the ban on the sale of fireworks to the general public, and only setting off fireworks under license conditions in displays, has been reignited by a petition started by Alan Smith. Mr Smith’s mother was killed in a house fire caused when a person pushed a lit firework through her letterbox whilst she slept in bed. This resulted in a house fire, in which Mrs Smith died.

Mr Smith is understandably very distressed about what happened to his mother and his loss. He is of the view that ‘fireworks cannot be policed’ at the moment.

Mr Smith calls for a change in the law to only allow sale of fireworks to people with a special licence and for use in an organised display. This he says would put the welfare of vulnerable people and animals first, reducing distress and injuries and lessening pressure on the emergency services.

Mr Smith believes that firework displays should be licenced, and that these sales of fireworks should be limited to licence holders only.

However, the questions to be asked are – what would be required to become a licensee? What knowledge should people have of fireworks and the effects they can have? would they need to have first aid knowledge? Would employment by a company that arranges displays be a requirement to get a license?

Should England, Scotland and Wales go the way of Northern Ireland, and allow outdoor fireworks only for regulated displays, with only indoor fireworks (sparklers, Christmas crackers and poppers) for sale to the general public?

Has the petition been well received by the public?

Many people reading this may be unaware that there is a petition making its way through Parliament, aiming to restrict the use of fireworks. Most petitions receive very limited publicity. Many people only seem to sign petitions in the modern era when their social media account makes them aware of it. These sites have algorithms which block some petitions being visible to only a few contacts of the person posting them.

A talking point could be how many of these social media tycoons, who have large bank balances, are making the conscious decision to cherry-pick petitions and campaigns which suit their political agenda.

By way of headline figure, the petition brought forward by Mr Smith has been a success on the surface, in that it has passed the ten thousand signatories’ mark. This means that the UK Government is now compelled to give a response. At the time of writing, the petition received just over 60,000 signatures in support for Mr Smith’s campaign. It will be interesting to see how the UK administration eventually responds to this petition.

What might happen next?

It will be interesting to see how this polarising debate plays out, and if fireworks will be banned. The legislation currently only permits professional-level fireworks to be used under a licence. It also restricts the use of sparklers by stopping people from lighting them on the road, in public, or a thoroughfare.

Considering the popular tradition of crackers and party poppers at Christmas, a total ban would probably be seen as disproportionate. A balanced, sensible approach will need to be taken to deal with the fireworks problem.