Top tips for a safe Bonfire Night
5 November 2020
With Bonfire Night displays not taking place this year, you might be looking to have your own small display with people in your household or social bubble.
Elizabeth Harvey, Events Manager and Norlander, has put together some top tips to help keep you and your little ones safe with a firework display in your garden.
1. Under-fives may not have the motor skills to hold a sparkler safely and certainly may not understand they will be hot. So, avoid allowing this age group to hold sparklers but take them to watch from a distance.
2. Avoid holding sparklers when holding infants. Young children can be unpredictable and speedily reach out, catching you and them by surprise.
3. For the over five age group, please remember they need extra supervision. It is very exciting being out in the dark and excitement can rise.
4. Ensure the children who will be holding sparklers are wearing gloves.
5. Do not encourage children to wave sparklers about too much and make sure they don’t stand too close to each other.
6. Make it your practice to put burnt out sparkles in a bucket of water. That way, no one will pick a hot sparkler off the ground.
7. Make an area away from the firework launch pad where children and adults not lighting the fireworks stand. However, do not make this near a BBQ or the bonfire if your neighbourhood allows you to light one, as we tend to walk backwards when we look up.
Watching fireworks is great fun. But burns from fireworks can be devastating – and happen very easily if you don’t take the correct safety precautions. You should:
- make sure children stand at a safe distance from the bonfire
- keep everyone well back from the display
- never return to a lit firework
- never throw fireworks
- keep fireworks in a closed metal box
- always follow the instructions when using fireworks
Photo: Richard Smith
Learn more about firework safety
