Comment on Is time up for backyard fireworks? UK ministers weigh partial ban over noise concerns
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 1 week agoWhere is this fabled golden land of responsible firework use you speak of? I know you’re not talking about Germany, where the streets transform into a warzone every New Year’s Eve. It is the most irresponsible and reckless thing I have ever experienced. Fireworks careen over the street at head height, bounce off buildings, smash through windows. They have special hospital tents set up for all the casualties and the fire service is stretched to its limits.
whatthey@feddit.uk 1 week ago
I’m reluctant to say too much for fear of the place filling up with English tourists on boozy trips getting burnt and just plain ruining it for everyone else.
What I will say is they have fireworks during the day and in the evening for consecutive days and very rarely are there accidents that makes the news cycle.
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 1 week ago
That sounds like you’re talking about one small place that’s not well known, which is fine and everything, but you said “places all over Europe manage to successfully allow people to throw fireworks”. That was just an exaggeration then?
whatthey@feddit.uk 1 week ago
I wouldn’t called France, Spain (numerous festivals), Germany, Malta small (well, maybe Malta).
I was talking about one specific festival as it’s one of the worlds largest and because I’ve been there quite a few times so know it better than the others but there are others which allow people to throw fireworks without too much reported incidents or complaints.
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 1 week ago
OK so you are talking Europe-wide then, if I’m understanding you right, and not just one small village festival somewhere that you went to one time with your family and didn’t see anyone get hurt.
And I just want to point out that that’s not actually right. The UK isn’t some reckless outlier amongst a sea of responsible European countries. Every major urban area where there are events where the public freely throw fireworks in the street has a massive injury problem and property damage associated with it.
Germany is where I have most experience with, having lived there for several years. They go absolutely mental with fireworks every new year. From about 6pm until 2am, in most major cities, fireworks are set off willy-nilly. People launch them from empty beer bottles, which not surprisingly often fall over. I’ve seen countless fireworks exploding in crowds, one time a firework skittered across the street and blew up right underneath a baby buggy. Needless to say, the baby was distraught. I’ve also seen someone run into the middle of a crossroads, put a large drum thing on the road and light it, it exploded with the most stupendous bang right as a car went past it. I was drinking outside one time when a firework went through an upstairs window down the street and set the apartment on fire. It is absolutely crazy and there is nothing responsible about it.
It’s the same deal in the Netherlands, although I’ve only experienced that first hand one time.
I simply don’t believe it’s any different anywhere this happens. Either the public do not routinely let off fireworks in the street of large cities - like in the UK for instance - or they do, and it’s absolute chaos and