Care urged around fireworks 

Source: NZPA

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The Fire Service is urging people to be careful ahead of Guy Fawkes festivities and if possible go along to a public display.

Wellington City has the country's largest display and more than 150,000 people are expected to witness the event which will be controlled from a computerised system on board a barge.

Pyrotechnics expert Robert McDermott says the fireworks pack a punch which is "a whole lot stronger than your store-bought fireworks".

"Ours go up around about 300 metres in the sky...I think the ones at The Warehouse are probably about 10 metres," says McDermott.

Two barges filled with three tonnes of explosives make Wellington's the largest public Guy Fawkes display in the country and the sky high spectacle costs more than $100,000.

"Rather than firing rockets all round the hills and setting everyone on fire this is a far better scenario but it brings everyone together to have fun and it's a sort of common cause and it's spectacular," says Wellington City Council spokesman John Morrison.

Wellington has been putting on the public displays for 15 years and the Fire Service says their growing popularity is making its job easier.

"It's a big impact for us. what we end up doing is having people in a safe environment watching fireworks be set off by registered people that know what they're doing and that way we end up with a lot less damage to property and a lot less injuries to people," says Wellington Regional Commander Ian Pickard.

And it seems more people could be choosing to leave it to the professionals with importers bringing in fewer fireworks - from 1700 tonnes three years ago to just over 500 this year.

"At the moment the New Zealand Fire Service is monitoring what the impact is, where we're at, and there's no immediate plans for us to try and lobby for change in legislation," says Pickard who believes the decline is the result of changes made to the laws surrounding the sale of fireworks in 2007.

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 which mean 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.

And the SPCA is advising pet owners to keep their animals indoors, in a safe, quiet place.

Meanwhile, the Wellington display which has taken months of planning and a week of setting up, will turn to smoke in around 19 minutes.