Not all display fireworks need a total distance of 25metres away

AnthonyUK

Here is some video to show you why;in the case of box fountains and single shot and vertical 10 and 9 shot candles, 25 metres isn't always necessary, I did a private garden display for a friend's 60th birthday celebration in April and I used a Bulldog Lightning selection box of display fireworks and a pack of Men Shun Wonderwheels pack of garden wheels, and nobody came to any harm which proves that for some fireworks, the 25 metre distance is total tosh and useless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtf1tw6PE6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIDghFlvvvI

qwiksave

I haven't seen those particular ones but I went to a firework display last year in someone's garden and the instructions on one firework said 'Point this side away from you.' That is what the person who was letting the fireworks off did - and the firework shot straight into the crowd. A few people suffered minor burns and one seven year old was taken to hospital. I'm only grateful it wasn't any of my two. I would be very reluctant to go to any garden display again.

AnthonyUK

qwiksave wrote: »

I haven't seen those particular ones but I went to a firework display last year in someone's garden and the instructions on one firework said 'Point this side away from you.' That is what the person who was letting the fireworks off did - and the firework shot straight into the crowd. A few people suffered minor burns and one seven year old was taken to hospital. I'm only grateful it wasn't any of my two. I would be very reluctant to go to any garden display again.

This was probably a multishot roman candle fan cake;there is often a label on the top with an arrow that says "place this side towards audience" with the slanted side at the side and straight front and back side toward the audience-presumably this is so the fan effect from left to right and right to left can be appreciated fully. Also these things need a good bit of space due to the fan spread and debris fallout;multishot roman candle fan cakes are most unsuitable for small gardens because of this.

qwiksave

AnthonyUK wrote: »

This was probably a multishot roman candle fan cake;there is often a label on the top with an arrow that says "place this side towards audience" with the slanted side at the side and straight front and back side toward the audience-presumably this is so the fan effect from left to right and right to left can be appreciated fully. Also these things need a good bit of space due to the fan spread and debris fallout;multishot roman candle fan cakes are most unsuitable for small gardens because of this.

Thanks for your reply, you are right, it did say "place this side towards audience" so is probably the type you said. It was one of those parties where people were asked to bring one firework. I have to say it put me off though.

Giggles_Fairy

Not really worth the risk is it.

AnthonyUK

qwiksave wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, you are right, it did say "place this side towards audience" so is probably the type you said. It was one of those parties where people were asked to bring one firework. I have to say it put me off though.

Well whoever organised that party should have had a bit more sense:
(a)He/she should have asked the shop for advice when buying,
(b)He/she should have checked the size of their garden and checked that the fireworks they buy are suitable for it (including any contributions that people might bring),
(c)AND if the garden isn't suitable for very large retail display fireworks, he/she should stipulate that in the invitations and specify precisely what people should bring.

Many very large display firework items like multishot roman candle fan cakes are most unsuitable for smaller gardens and with the large spread of effects and the fallout debris used in a confined space can be quite hazardous to people from hot or solid fallout dropping on them and also can be quite damaging to property eg paintwork damage to cars from hot fallout/melted polytunnels etc.

I prefer a well organised party with plenty of good stuff that IS suitable for a garden display bought in by myself then I KNOW IT IS GOING TO BE SAFE AND THAT WAY NOBODY CAN BRING IN OVERSIZED FIREWORKS THAT ARE GOING TO BE INAPPROPRIATE FOR USE THAT MIGHT PUT MY SPECTATORS AND NEARBY PROPERTY AT RISK. Selection box material and smaller packaged items easily meet this proviso and are much less powerful than a lot of the much bigger single retail display firework items with big effects that spreads their spectacle all over the place with the possibility of them landing on persons and property putting them at risk because you cannot get or arrange the space needed to use them safely. I took safety extremely seriously with the display I organised for my friend's 60th Birthday and went for a 25m selection box of small and medium sized display firework items and a pack of smaller 5m garden firework wheels because the space just wasn't that big enough for very large single display fireworks(but big enough to accommodate the smaller selection box display firework material) and nobody got hurt at all. The problem with the BS 7114 part 2 1988 requirements are that they doesn't make a distinction for fireworks which fall between 5m for garden items and 25m for display items, so much so in that something inanimate small ridiculously tame and gentle which falls just outside 5m for viewing but doesn't need the full 25 metre safety distance is automatically given a 25 metre safety rating regardless of how ridiculously small it is, which means smaller tamer fireworks like small fountains/small mines/smaller roman candles,roman candle cakes and barrages/rockets and wheels need an open field or VERY large garden to safely view them BUT when you use them at that distance you find they are ridiculously piddling and tame at 25 metres away, and that puts sufficient meat on the bones of my argument that some fireworks labelled 25 metre display fireworks are totally rubbish at such a distance away.