Adults should not have hand contact when lighting firecrackers while children should not be allowed to light fire crackers at all, National Training Officer of the Colombo National Hospital Accident Ward Pushpa Ramyani De Zoysa said.
“Adults should light firecrackers and make a dash for it and they should not go back and examine if there are any unlit firecrackers,” De Zoysa said.
“They should not light fire crackers under the influence of liquor,” she said.
According to Zoysa, a fire crackers should not be more than two inches long and the fuse should not be shorter than two and half inches. The firecracker should be cylinder shaped. They are usually packed in their hundreds in one big packet. Other firecrackers are not safe. They are similar to bombs and sometimes people die or lose body parts by lighting them.
“The firecrackers should not be dropped from high rise buildings. They should not be thrown over walls, into gardens etc. If anyone gets burnt while lightning firecrackers, they should wash the injury with clean cold water for at least 20 minutes and if an eye gets burnt, it should be watered continuously until the victim reaches the Eye Hospital,” she said.