FIREWORKS

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Fireworks display costing £6k gone in 50 seconds. Another firework display is being planned for Oban, in Argyll, after a £6,000 show intended to last 25 minutes ended in just 50 seconds when an electronic timing fault set the bangers off in one go. Oban Community Fireworks Display saw dozens of bangers explode in one go. The fireworks had been intended to launch in synch with music that started playing simultaneously. Councillor Roddy McCuish, one of the organisers of the display, apologised to the gathered crowd, and now Pyro 1, the company behind the show, is planning a free replacement later in the month.

Councillor McCuish said of the fiasco, "It was like daylight. It was absolutely fantastic. When I did announce "that was it", people thought I was joking. The operative explained to me there had been a terrible malfunction. The public in Oban have been absolutely fantastic. I was expecting a carry-on but they were fine when I announced that unfortunately "that was it, put the lights back on". The public were absolutely brilliant about it." (Source: Metro, Nov/11)

Yobs tried to shoot down a police helicopter with super-powerful fireworks. The gangs, who soup up fireworks with names like The Terminator, Atomic Destruction and Satan's Selection, have also targeted beat bobbies and pedestrians in the deadly new craze. Cops have even been forced to call in Bomb Squad experts to defuse the devices which have the same devastating impact as booby-traps used by terrorists in Iraq.

Chief Superintendent Robin Merrett, of Kent Police, said, "We are not talking about a small whizz-bang rocket of the sort dads light on Guy Fawkes' Night for their children. These are heavy duty industrial-strength explosives normally used in large public displays - they are potentially deadly." Police believe the yobs are buying the fireworks off the Internet after they are stolen to order. They are adapted and filled with gunpowder many times that legally allowed in any one firework.

The yobs fire them before diving for cover in the walkways of high-rise flats. In the helicopter incident, the pilot had to take emergency action to avoid a rocket deliberately fired at it. Chief Supt Merrett added, "If a helicopter was hit in the right place it could be brought down, as well as the obvious danger of blinding the pilot. In this instance, the highly-skilled pilot used his training and professionalism to stay in control and evade the rocket. He was an extremely lucky man. It could well have been a different story."

The gangs have struck from a number of estates in the South East. In another terrifying incident, nine people were taken to hospital after yobs hurled the lethal explosives at a lorry in Erith, Kent. They were not seriously hurt. And a police inspector, from Bexleyheath, Kent, was rushed to hospital after suffering leg and body injuries from an exploding firework. He was released after treatment.

Chief Supt Merrett added, "A number of people have been wounded in these incidents. We are treating them extremely seriously. I am appalled by the misuse of fireworks in public places. Street gangs have also booby-trapped everything from phone boxes to dustbins with their home-made bombs and it is only a matter of time before someone is maimed or even killed."

A schoolboy caused £270,000 of damage to a block of flats after setting off a firework in his bedroom. The 11-year-old lit a rocket in his bedroom in the Austrian capital Vienna, but it flew into curtains and set them on fire. The blaze spread quickly and soon engulfed his room and then spread to the rest of the flat and to a neighbouring flat and another apartment above. The entire block of flats was evacuated as fire fighters battled to put out the flames. No one was hurt but two flats were totally destroyed and others damaged and authorities have put the cost of repair at £270,000. (Source: Ananova, Dec/06)

A resident called police to say that kids were throwing fireworks at each other in the street. The incident was one of five involving fireworks in Derby and Derbyshire that were reported to the police on the same day. Police received reports that six youths were setting off fireworks but, typically, the gang had disappeared by the time police arrived. Anyone caught throwing fireworks in the street can be fined up to £5,000. But, of course, they first have to be caught.

A man had a lucky escape after the flat below his was set on fire by a firework that was fired into the building just after midnight. DC Peter Lander said, "It will be a 10 or 12-year-old pratting about with a firework, which has happened for as long as I can remember, despite police warnings."

Public bonfires will be banned unless those in charge have had training and ear-splitting star bursts and air bombs which explode at 140 decibels will be outlawed. A limit of 120 decibels will be enforced and no one will be allowed to set off fireworks between 11pm and 7am, although November 5 may be made a special case and shops will need a licence to sell fireworks.

Bomb disposal experts were called to a Derbyshire village after two powerful display fireworks caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to a house and a public phone box. A bomb disposal team from Chilwell Barracks, arrived at 3am and took away the remainder of the firework. Detective Sergeant Dermot Stuart, of Swadlincote CID said the police were linking the two incidents. "People have been making home-made fireworks, and using display fireworks, both of which are extremely powerful." he said. Police have also been investigating the possibility some youths were making bombs from a recipe on the internet.