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The Fire Service is warning some fireworks could be too explosive for your own backyard.
Fireworks went on sale on Monday ahead of Guy Fawkes on
Thursday, but firefighters fear some are too powerful and should
only be set off at controlled displays.
Last year the Fire Service had its lowest number of callouts ever
at just 361 compared with 1,700 three years ago.
It attributes the fall to restrictions on the sale of fireworks. Buyers have to be over 18 and can only purchase them in the three days leading up to Guy Fawkes.
But the Fire Service says fireworks themselves are becoming more dangerous.
"Some of the fireworks we're starting to see are really pushing the boundaries, we believe, of the regulations. And it really is a concern to us," says George Stephens, a fire safety officer.
The fireworks ONE News filmed on Monday were all legal, the amount of gunpowder, wick burning speed and noise level tested by the Environmental Risk Management Authority.
But retailers believe some probably only just passed the grade.
Lower-level projectile fireworks are another concern.
"If you're standing reasonably close, then you're in the firing line," says Stephens.
One store now stocks smaller scale versions of "multi-break" fireworks used by professionals in big public displays. Barry Wah Lee, a fireworks retailer, says these fireworks are not as big as the big ones at displays but are a similar style.
"You wouldn't want to light them in a small backyard or you'd certainly not put them in your hands," he says.
It's the damage they could do in the wrong hands that's worrying the Fire Service.
"We need to raise that awareness with the public, to say they're not fireworks as we used to know them," says Stephens.
He says some fireworks need even more care than ever before.
The Auckland City Council has put fireworks bans in place for public parks and beaches from Tuesday until Friday.
But there will be some public firework displays across the country.
This year is the 404th anniversary of Guy Fawkes' failed attempt to blow up England's houses of parliament in 1605.
