The firecracker
season is on

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The explosion in a firecrackers factory in Hinigaran town, Negros Occidental, Friday where two persons were seriously injured, is just a harbinger of the harm that such devices could continue to inflict on people in the coming weeks.

In that incident that happened in the town that is known as the firecracker capital of the province, the victims were the owner of the factory himself and his helper. Police reports said a spark in the manufacturing area had caused the explosion that, in turn started a fire that destroyed the nipa structure that housed the factory.

What is surprising about the incident also, is that the owner of the firecracker factory reportedly has a license to manufacture them from the Firearms Explosive Security Service Agency and Guards Supervisory Section of the Philippine National Police. If so, the factory must have gotten the go-signal to produce the mini-explosives, and was therefore considering his production legal.

The question is whether those who approved the license had actually checked out the conditions in the workplace, considering that what are being produced are dangerous and very likely to cause, not only accidental explosions, but also destructive fires.

And it is not only the factory where the recent explosion had occurred that has been reported to be housed in structures made of highly flammable nipa fronds. Shouldn’t this have been taken into consideration when the owner had applied for a license?

Meanwhile, what the public should now be more concerned about are those firecrackers and pyrotechnics. While they may provide great entertainment and color during the coming holiday season, recent history has shown that they extract much from victims when they accidentally explode or cause fire. And this is especially true of those manufactured under substandard conditions.

Perhaps the police agency that grants licenses to firecracker manufacturers should sit up and be more meticulous in approving them. The odds are too great to ignore as we will be risking not only injuries, but even death.*