W. Visayas firecracker-related incidents highest in five years

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The New Year’s Eve celebration at the close of Year 2011 has resulted in the most number of injuries due to firecrackers and pyrotechnics through the last five years.

Data released by the Police Regional Office-6 showed that there were 83 firecracker-related incidents during the recent New Year’s Eve revelries, before 2012.

In 2007, there were 79 incidents, 42 in 2008, 39 in 2009, and 73 in 2010 with one death.

As expected, a number of those injured were drunk while using the firecrackers, said PRO-6 spokesperson Sr. Insp. Sally Manuel. “I think, it still important that people should be cautious of their personal safety,” she said.

DOH-6’s Julia Villanueva, cluster head for non-communicable diseases, said the incidents did not yet include cases from other provinces like Guimaras and those who did not go to hospitals to seek medical treatment.

The data may not yet be final as their monitoring of firecracker-related injuries is still up to today, January 5.

Villanueva said most of the victims are from 0 to 20 age bracket and the firecrackers used were kamara, kwitis, buga (improvised blasting gadget) and whistle bomb.

The DOH-6 was also firm that there was no lapse in its implementation of the APIR (Aksyon: Paputok Injury Reduction). “The problem lies on the implementation of the ban against firecrackers,” she said.

PRO-6, on the other hand, has yet to release reports on the number of stray bullet incidents in the region. It only reported so far 15 recovered slugs and two victims injured in the city and province of Iloilo during the New Year celebration.

In 2007, PRO-6 records showed nine cases of stray bullet; 11 in 2008; three in 2009 and one in 2010 that was also killed.

Further, the 2011’s campaign against fire had been proven effective, with no fire incident compared to a lone case in 2008 and two each in 2009 and 2010.