How safe are back garden bonfires and firework displays?

The bangs and whistles begin around the end of October and carry on after November 5th. People seek the convenience of their own schedules to hold their parties when they feel like it and when the weather permits. When I was young, it was November 5th alone and strictly not afterwards or much before then. There were traditional village green bonfires, but many families just spent a pound or two and had a small fire in the garden with sparklers and adults letting off the other fireworks to the delight of the children. It was mostly for the children in our area and the grownups were there to make it happen. As life has become more sophisticated so has our expectation of Guy Fawkes Night/s/s/s. When every bang and whoosh cost a pound and major “shwam-bang-crackle -pop ,pop, pop” a tenner, there appears to be quite a bit of cash going up in smoke. I wouldn’t be a kill-joy and ban them, but I would like to see the celebrations narrowed to the weekend or couple of days around the fifth. There should be a difference between domestic fireworks and those for display purposes and the ability to purchase the latter made restrictive. The pops and bangs round here are sometimes very explosive. One could reflect on the background to these celebrations which has been all but removed from the event as our guys go up in flames. The current parliament might well benefit from a little well placed metaphoric gunpowder to help it sort out the squabbles and dissention within its ranks, but I digress!

“hosts incredibly decided to douse the logs in petrol” “throwing the fireworks which had failed on top of the raging flames.“. This is like blaming cars and roads for the behaviour of drunk drivers. It is idiots like these hosts who should be banned.

No, I would not ban fireworks, anymore than pubs where you can choose to get drunk, climbing mountains or going boating when you might put rescue services at risk, the Isle of Man TT or any other risky activity that many people may choose to pursue. The vast majority have a lot of fun with home fireworks without incident; why spoil their enjoyment because some stupid people do stupid things?

In the Midlands and SE of England there are between 6 and 15 thundery days on average each year, far noisier and brighter than fireworks and something we all, animals included, have to come to terms with. We can’t ban those.

When some don’t like an activity they seem to think they have a right to impose their personal dislike on others, who clearly do enjoy it. Their choice is simple; don’t have your fireworks at home, don’t go to a private fireworks party, avoid stupid people, go down the pub and hope no one bans the devil drink.

Myself and a kid downstairs in a tenement flat built a “street bonfire ” on Blitzed waste ground for many years .
We gathered wood from far and wide and had to defend it from other kids trying to steal it so we kept it in the washing house .
We built up a very large one each November and all the street,s inhabitants attended letting off fireworks purchased in nice fancy boxes from the local hardware store over a long period of time ,along with sparklers which survived the bombing .

Potatoes were roasted in the fire and we made up a “Guy ” weeks before to sit on the top , those were the days before the heavy hand of “you cant do that ” existed and the “mothering ” approach where every little thing now is made to look like you are committing a grave offense and must be jailed for a year at least,
people had more important things on their mind like surviving on ration coupons and affording a loaf of bread ,
the things taken for granted now did not exist for many round about me including myself ,I sometimes wonder if ,when a national emergency occurs how this “coddled ” society would continue to exist.

Where now “community spirit ” ?

Some people spend a small fortune on their computers, hi-fi, phones, holidays, parties, …………. It’s “disposable income”. Fortunately we can choose what we do with our spare money, if we are fortunate in having some.

However, it can take training to extract money from an unwilling wallet. Having been brought up in relatively impecunious circumstances after the war, when we had real austerity (you don’t know what austerity is these days) I have been very careful in allocating my dosh. But as life ticks by it becomes a little easier, and rewarding. Particularly when it benefits others as well.