Halloween and Fireworks

[RspctFrmCalgary]

And this was only ONE of the many incidents in BC ....



Teen injured in Halloween fireworks accident
01/11/2006 2:07:26 PM


An 18-year-old boy was in Victoria General Hospital with severe head injuries on Wednesday after an accident involving fireworks on Halloween night.


CBC News
Police believe the teen and some friends were setting off homemade fireworks in suburban Saanich.

Staff Sgt. Terry Parker said officers found the badly injured youth in Marigold Park just after 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

"They located an 18-year-old male who was unconscious and appeared to have suffered head injuries as the result of an explosive device which was made out of, possibly, fireworks."

The youth underwent emergency surgery.

Parker said investigators were interviewing the victim's friends.

Update Novembe 2, 2006:

Teen remains in intensive care


Shrapnel from explosion of homemade pipe bomb strikes victim in head


A Saanich teenager remained in critical condition in the intensive-care unit at Victoria General Hospital yesterday after a homemade copper pipe bomb exploded in his face at Marigold Park on Halloween night.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Centre's 'well-loved' bus torched

Published: Thursday, November 02, 2006
A small Victoria community centre says it will have to cancel all the field trips for its kids after its 24-passenger bus was torched on Halloween.

Fireworks are considered a likely cause of the blaze that gutted the bus owned and operated by the Oaklands Community Centre on Belmont Avenue near Hillside Avenue.

"It's really disappointing," Alana Stewart, the centre's community development co-ordinator, said yesterday.

"The bus was used for ... child-care programs, youth drop-in programs and seniors programs.

"We use it for all of our trips. We're going to have to cancel all of our kids' activities."

Victoria police Const. Rick Anthony said it appears that the bus was broken into during the evening and set ablaze. It was parked at Oaklands Elementary School, which adjoins the centre.

Stewart said the bus was purchased after a community fundraising effort about six years ago.

"It was insured, but the replacement value is huge," she said. "It was an older bus and it was really working well for what we needed."

The brown-and-cream-coloured Ford bus was affectionately known as the "Goshen Coach," a label derived from its model name.

The bus was "well-used and well-loved," Stewart said.

"We've had a lot of feedback from the community saying how sorry they are."

In Saanich, meanwhile, police received 109 calls between 7 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. yesterday. Many of the complaints involved vandalism and noise. Eleven arrests were made.

[cozmosis]

Interesting. Fireworks are pretty much limited to our Independence Day and Christmas/New Year's Eve in my part of the world.