Holistic solution to fireworks issue

However, while Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Deodath Dulalchan agreed, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Na tional Security, Lydia Jacob, said what was needed was a holistic solution since some importers have large stocks which could probably last them as many as two to three years.

The issue emerged as a Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration met at the Parliament building to hold its first inquiry on the issue of the safety of fireworks. Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan suggested the suspension of imports after the Ministry of National Security acknowledged that it did not know how much fireworks had been imported into the country.

And it also emerged that a fireworks storage facility at Macoya, Tunapuna, faces closure as the Fire Department said yesterday that the facility was unsuitable for the storage of explosives.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Cecil Davis said the importer has a retail outlet at Macoya where fireworks are stored.

He told the committee that the importer was given 90 days to improve the Fire Protection System at his Macoya facility and that the 90 days had expired and the improvements were not made. He said the Fire Department will be moving ahead to have the licence for the storage of fireworks at that location revoked.

Dulalchan said that five persons had been charged for offences over the last five years for retailing fireworks without a licence.

Committee Chairman Dhanysar Mahabir asked whether the act could be enforced more seriously given the nuisance caused by the use of fireworks.

Dulalchan admitted that the police receive many calls but said they are mostly anonymous calls and the callers are reluctant to support the police.

Mahabir said the law also stipulates that no importer may keep more than 150 pounds of manufactured fireworks in any compound, but while the officials from the Fire Department said two of the three main importers in the country were compliant they said the one in Macoya was not and had not been since 2011.

Jacob said no new licences for the importation of fireworks have been issued since 2014 and committee members wondered whether this meant that the fireworks being sold to the country were stale and expired and worried about the dangers posed to the public by fireworks which had been imported so long ago.