Camille Clarke

Bring­ing in the New Year with fire­works and scratch bombs could land peo­ple in a heap of trou­ble with law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, with per­pe­tra­tors fac­ing a hefty $1,000 fine.In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, deputy po­lice com­mis­sion­er Ann Marie Al­leyne-Daly said light­ing fire­crack­ers and scratch bombs was il­le­gal.Quot­ing and sum­maris­ing the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act and the Ex­plo­sives Act, she said: "It is il­le­gal and an of­fence to throw, cast or set fire to fire­works in any town."

Al­leyne-Daly said cit­i­zens could call the po­lice and make a re­port about fire­crack­ers in their area "and the po­lice will re­spond."The law al­so ap­plied to de­vices which have a sim­i­lar ex­plo­sive ef­fect when det­o­nat­ed, she said.She added: "I would like to let mem­bers of the pub­lic know the throw­ing or cast­ing of scratch bombs or these de­vices is il­le­gal and it is an of­fence and you can be fined $1,000."The peo­ple are usu­al­ly young and we want to ad­vise par­ents that this could be dan­ger­ous to chil­dren."

Al­leyne-Daly said ven­dors sell­ing fire­works need­ed a li­cence to do so and that could on­ly be grant­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.She added: "Un­der the Ex­plo­sive Act the Com­mis­sion­er is the on­ly per­son to grant a li­cence to some­one to sell gun­pow­der, ex­plo­sives or fire­works."Any­body who con­tra­venes that is like­ly to be fined $1,000 and the premis­es must be cer­ti­fied in writ­ing that there is a fire­proof vault to store the ex­plo­sive and no li­cence will be is­sued un­less those things are in place."

Al­leyne-Daly said the po­lice an­nu­al­ly re­ceived sev­er­al com­plaints from the sick, el­der­ly and an­i­mal own­ers.She not­ed that dur­ing the fi­nal quar­ter of the year, when cit­i­zens used the de­vices to cel­e­brate events like Di­vali, Christ­mas and New Year's Day, it was par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­tress­ing to those cit­i­zens."We would like to see a stop to these things. It is a safe­ty and health is­sue and an il­le­gal act," she said.

Con­tact­ed on the is­sue yes­ter­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith said the im­porters of the fire­works usu­al­ly had au­tho­ri­sa­tion.He said: "It is in how it is used. That is what is il­le­gal. Many peo­ple tell me they are con­cerned about the an­i­mals."The po­lice have to make a pol­i­cy de­ci­sion. If it is against the law they need to im­ple­ment it. It has been go­ing on for years now."It is a straight case of the po­lice be­ing aware there are laws gov­ern­ing a sit­u­a­tion. It is in­cum­bent on them to en­force it."

Don­na Cox, MP for Laven­tille East and for­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, mean­while, ques­tioned why the prod­ucts were be­ing sold if they were il­le­gal.She said: "Plen­ty of com­plaints...how come peo­ple open­ly sell­ing it? I see­ing fire­work stalls through­out the coun­try. Why are they al­lowed to sell it?

"They are very in­sen­si­tive to the el­der­ly, even the an­i­mals. My yard was dirty be­cause the rem­nants of the fire­works came down in my yard. Or if it lands on your house, which could cause a fire and a fire haz­ard," she said.

Cox said peo­ple con­tin­ued set­ting off fire­works and scratch bombs un­til well af­ter mid­night which is un­com­fort­able and un­fair, adding an­i­mals al­so suf­fered a lot. "I feel it is time the au­thor­i­ties get some­thing done. The laws need to be im­ple­ment­ed. Why the po­lice not stop­ping them?" she asked.On the so­cial net­work Face­book and on ra­dio talk shows, there were nu­mer­ous com­plaints yes­ter­day about the noise made by fire­crack­ers.One com­men­ta­tor said scratch bombs were be­com­ing a se­ri­ous prob­lem.

"Thus far, I have heard peo­ple com­plain­ing in St Ann's, Mor­vant, Ari­ma, Freeport, Cou­va, San Fer­nan­do, San Juan, Barataria, Mal­oney and right by me here in Tu­na­puna...It's crazy! They burst­ing this thing every­where. My mom said some­body pelt on her roof. Ah mean, if I jump­ing, what about old peo­ple re­lax­ing, chil­dren rest­ing, teens study­ing. Ah mean, have a heart, nah," he said.

Sales slow in Port-of-Spain

Sev­er­al small ven­dors who sell fire­works in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day com­plained that busi­ness was slow but said it would get bet­ter to­day, it be­ing New Year's Eve.Shogun Colour, String Bomb, Raz­zle Daz­zle, Shine, Py­ropaint balls, Black­cat and Space­rock­et were the names of some of the fire­works be­ing sold. Some were be­ing sold on the same stall as fruits, veg­eta­bles, cloth­ing and oth­er items.Stephen Williams, a ven­dor at Queen and Hen­ry Street, said busi­ness was slow.

"Sales are very, very slow all over. I know friends sell­ing even in South and it slow," he said.Williams said, how­ev­er, that he agreed with the pe­nal­is­ing of cit­i­zens be­cause there were "one or two delin­quents.""It is im­por­tant to know but we not sell­ing it il­le­gal. We got it cleared through Cus­toms," he said.Jaden George, an­oth­er ven­dor, who al­so sells veg­eta­bles at Char­lotte and Duke Streets, said she was hop­ing busi­ness would pick up.

"It is very slow and they not giv­ing no li­cence. You still take the chance, you have to live. Sur­vival of the fittest," she said.By con­trast, a staff mem­ber at Fire One Fire­works yes­ter­day said busi­ness had been boom­ing."Sales have been great and we've been sell­ing a lot since we opened on Box­ing Day," she said.

An­i­mals al­so af­fect­ed

Nali­ni Di­al, An­i­mals Are Hu­man Too ac­tivist, yes­ter­day said pet-own­ers should se­cure their an­i­mals and the law should be en­forced."For years we have been putting up with the fire­works. It is il­le­gal and it seems like the po­lice can't en­force the law. They are not sup­posed to be used in res­i­den­tial ar­eas and sold and bought or im­port­ed with­out a li­cence. It is be­ing sold all over with no en­force­ment," she said.

Di­al said chil­dren, the sick, the el­der­ly and an­i­mals were tor­ment­ed every year from Di­vali on­wards."We have to stop this. The po­lice and Gov­ern­ment have to put down their feet and stop this abuse. It is law­less­ness to the high­est de­gree. Every­body com­plain­ing but not do­ing any­thing about it. Neigh­bours are with­out con­sid­er­a­tion for oth­ers," she said.Di­al said she se­cured her an­i­mals by "board­ing" her dogs at the vet."It al­so af­fects bird and oth­er an­i­mals. Safe­ly se­cure your an­i­mals," she added.

Mem­ber of the T&T So­ci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Cru­el­ty to An­i­mals (TTSP­CA), Mary Stern, said the po­lice did not in­ter­vene when peo­ple com­plained about the noise of fire­works."If we can get them to buy noise­less fire­works it would work but they don't do that. You could see it and don't need a bang."The po­lice don't get in­volved. They do noth­ing. You go put the whole of Trinidad in jail?" she asked.

Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act:Fire­works and firearms

99. (1) Ex­cept as pre­scribed by reg­u­la­tions un­der this act, any per­son who throws, casts, sets fire to, or lets off any fire­works with­in any town is li­able to a fine of $1,000.

(2) ..."town" in­cludes the City of Port-of-Spain, the City of San Fer­nan­do, and the Bor­ough of Ari­ma, and every part of the area with­in two miles of the bound­aries of such city or of ei­ther of such bor­oughs, and al­so any place or area de­clared by the min­is­ter, by or­der, to be a town or to be deemed to be in­clud­ed with­in a town for the pur­pos­es of the said sec­tions.

100. Any per­son who throws, casts, sets fire to, or lets off any fire­works in­to, in, or up­on any street not be­ing in any town, or in­to, in, or up­on any place be­ing with­in 60 feet of the cen­tre of any such street, is li­able to a fine of $400.