BY Ghaisa Ghaibour

THE Dubai Police continues the campaign on fireworks to heighten awareness and to educate the public about the inherent dangers of children handling them.

Dubai Police launched a drive at the onset of Ramadan to curb fireworks being smuggled into the country and being sold illegally on the black market.

“The campaign has been run successfully as the number of injuries related to fireworks has dropped dramatically, said the Director General of the Security Establishment Department, Colonel Abdullah Ali Al Ghaithi.

“Dubai Police has focused on educating the public about the dangers in addition to cracking down on outlets that sell fireworks. The dangers fireworks pose are many and have been the cause of several blazes.”

He added that the team distributed brochures to parents as part of the activities of the Ramadan tent organised by the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing in Al Tawar 2. This was to alert families to report anyone who promotes fireworks, to the competent authorities.

“Playing with fireworks is popular amongst the youth during the Holy Month of Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr, but many of them do not know how to handle fireworks, and so end up injured as a result.”

Al Ghaithi noted that the fireworks pose huge risks — in many cases, leading to burns and deformities or even permanent disablement. At times, playing with fireworks have led to outbreaks of fires in homes and stores selling them, causing both serious financial and environmental damage.

“In an unfortunate case, which happened a few years ago, a young girl lost her eye as a result of firing off a cracker,” he noted.

He warned people who take advantage of seasons such as the Holy Month, summer and Eid Al Fitr against promoting these dangerous playthings, who do so only with an eye on money, whilst completely ignoring its attendant dangers.

“Over the past three years, we have destroyed 228 tonnes of fireworks, including 144.4 tonnes in 2007, and 31.9 tonnes in 2008, while in 2009 we destroyed 51.95 tonnes,” he said.

Recently, the Dubai police arrested two suspects for allegedly helping to smuggle a huge consignment of fireworks into the UAE.

Colonel Al Ghaithi pointed out that the campaign has been intensified during Ramadan and targets all segments of the society.