The Big Bang: How the injuries and deaths caused by fireworks are overlooked every year

Article by Batuhan (15.05.2025)

Many of you reading this are aware of fireworks and their purpose. They are considered a crucial part of many celebrations across multiple countries and have evolved to be more safe for such celebrations. However, even recently, it has been shown that fireworks are still just as dangerous as they were back during their invention.

Fireworks have been considered a fun way of celebration when it comes to holidays for a long time. They are mainly rockets that fly into the air before exploding and creating nice colors. The other variations include the infamous firecrackers as well as sparklers. Fireworks have proven how dangerous they can be due to many failures. Fireworks usually have a string that is meant to be lit, which gives people enough time to back away from them before they fire into the sky. The safest failure that can occur is when the firework becomes a “dud”, meaning that it fails to launch into the sky or explode. The worst failures occur when the firework does not launch at all, but explodes on the ground, which can cause several injuries to the audience. Other failures are usually man-made, as people do not position the fireworks properly, causing them to go off and hit something or someone.

The failures already mentioned are usually expected when buying and using legal fireworks. However, most injuries and deaths caused by fireworks are usually the result of illegal fireworks. These types of fireworks are either directly created by people due to a variety of reasons like cheaper cost, personal customisation or legal restrictions in local areas (some areas do not allow higher explosive yield fireworks, causing some people to try to create their own versions instead). These fireworks can also be created and sold by people in order to profit off of people who want cheap and big fireworks during certain holidays. Because these fireworks haven't been made by a corporation or by any business entity, it becomes impossible to regulate the fireworks to ensure their safety. Most injuries and deaths are caused by these faulty fireworks not functioning properly and exploding. Fireworks also contain a mixture of chemicals in order to ensure a satisfactory explosion, which can also cause even worse injuries when they explode.

During the most recent New Year’s celebrations of 2025, a surge of injuries was reported across Germany as people employed these illegal fireworks. At least 5 people have perished in the celebrations, with many more injured. 17 people were injured in Berlin due primarily to the use of Kugelbomben (a spherical object containing small pellets, a type of powder and an explosion) which were also made illegally, as these are reserved for professional use only due to their danger. Many concerns have been raised by authorities as people no longer prefer to only get a regular sparkler or a legal firework rocket but instead choose to create illegal fireworks. CDU politician Burkard Dregger stated “The import of banned fireworks from eastern neighboring countries has got to be stopped with even stricter border checks.” The majority of the 5 fatalities have been linked to homemade fireworks exploding prematurely. 

A more terrifying statistic was the amount of injuries reported. Firefighters reported 1,892 incidents, which was 294 more than last year’s celebrations. There was also the weaponization of fireworks with at least 13 reports of fireworks being launched at emergency workers. The weaponization of fireworks also exposes a more sinister issue when it comes to both legal and illegal fireworks. The concept of fireworks themselves involve a self-propelling rocket that explodes, which makes it shockingly easy to weaponise. Fireworks are mostly seen as being unintentionally harmful, but when statistics of purposefully firing at people are shown, they are ignored. Fireworks are shockingly easy to make as the regulation of the products needed are lax despite the danger that they pose. 

Nearby celebrations in the Netherlands resulted in at least 187 people sustaining eye injuries from fireworks. 15 of those injuries caused the people to go blind and a further 6 required the eyes be surgically removed. Fireworks are also more hazardous than people expect when it comes to long-lasting injuries. Some faulty fireworks can not lift off properly and only rise a few feet before exploding at eye level which can be very unfortunate for anyone standing nearby. Due to the colors that fireworks require, a dangerous mix of chemicals are also needed which leads to problems when they explode at eye level and in close range. Should the chemicals hit the eyes, there is a guarantee of blindness, along with potentially life-threatening injuries. These chemical burns combined with thermal burns also cause injuries across the entire body which can lead to scarring or potential maiming.

As an example, a seven-year-old named Necati Karki attended a fireworks show in Northern Berlin. The show would take a dark turn as a Kugelbombe would be launched at the crowd of women and children by unknown assailants. The seven-year-old has undergone at least three different operations and remained in a critical condition. Many longtime residents of Germany see this event as the prime example that end-of-year celebrations are becoming more and more deadly with each passing year. While personally crafted fireworks are the more deadly of the two, people who buy these illegal fireworks tend to import them from other countries that are more lax in their own regulation of fireworks. Key countries responsible for this are China, India and multiple other markets in eastern countries that export their fireworks illegally. The blame cannot be labelled onto any one country. Even when those countries export safe and regulated fireworks, will still have an illegal market that produces and sells fireworks for as cheap a price as possible (this is especially true in China and India, as they produce more than 90% of the world's fireworks combined). 

Regulations for fireworks allow less fatalities but have the downside of increasing the cost of production for creating fireworks. With enough regulations, the price of legal and safe fireworks becomes high as companies attempt to turn a profit which leads to consumers turning to cheaper alternatives regardless of how dangerous those alternatives can be. Even if all companies adopted the same standards for fireworks production, there would still likely be fatalities as people seek to create their own fireworks or merely want to cheaply celebrate the end of the year. The only other solution that would work slightly better than tighter regulation would be a complete ban on fireworks. This solution has also been criticised, as fireworks are considered an age-old tradition and provide quality time for people to spend with their friends and families. The more critical observation of a complete ban would be the chance of increased mortalities by fireworks. When a product is made illegal, it no longer can be regulated to be safe which would lead to the majority of fireworks, if not all, becoming more dangerous as producers spend less on creating them in order to gain a larger profit.

However, it is not a requirement to use fireworks as the only way to celebrate the end of year. There are safer and better alternatives for people that would work better. Glow sticks, which can be considered quite boring, can be very fun as proven when it comes to attending concerts. Confetti poppers also aren't very dangerous, while still providing the loud noises and colorful displays to rival fireworks. Laser light shows are also a good alternative, but only when handled by professionals, as there is always a risk of lasers interfering with airplanes. Drone light shows are probably the most successful alternative, as they provide all the displays of a firework while also having the bonus of not disappearing immediately. With a horde of drones, intricate and beautiful designs can also be created. It is not necessary to entirely ban fireworks when these safer alternatives exist. If the government instead increased subsidies to these alternatives, fireworks would be much more likely to fade out of fashion and halt the injuries and fatalities that come with them.

In conclusion, fireworks have been proven time and again to be dangerous even when regulated and downright deadly when produced illegally. This has often had people call for tighter legislation around holidays, as injuries and fatalities mount. The idea of tighter legislation proves to be inefficient, as even when a global standard of regulation is reached, illegal fireworks will still be produced due to a wish for profit and an overall lowered cost of production. Overall, banning fireworks altogether would also not solve the issue as fireworks would still be produced and sold, but with no more regulation would instead cause higher injuries and deaths which would make the move altogether counterproductive. The best course of action to solve the issue (or at least to mitigate it) would be the subsidisation of safer alternatives, which would cause the alternatives to become cheaper and more desired around celebration time, while decreasing the amount of injuries and fatalities and making fireworks less fashionable.

Sources:

Source 1- AA

Bicer, A. (2025, January 3). German officials call for tighter controls on illegal fireworks after deadly chaos in Country. Anadolu Ajansı. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german-officials-call-for-tighter-controls-on-illegal-fireworks-after-deadly-chaos-in-country/3440968 

Source 2- CNN

Tanno, S., Halasz, S., & Pleitgen, F. (2025, January 1). Five killed and emergency workers targeted as firework Chaos Mars Germany’s New Year Celebrations. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/01/europe/germany-fireworks-new-year-deaths-intl/index.html 

Source 3- The Guardian

Doe, J. (2025a, January 10). “a risk to life and limb”: Residents of Germany and Netherlands Rue Dangers of Fireworks. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/a-risk-to-life-and-limb-residents-of-germany-and-netherlands-rue-dangers-of-fireworks 

Source 4-NL times

Doe, J. (2025c, January 27). Record number of firework-related eye injuries during New Year’s celebrations. NL Times. https://nltimes.nl/2025/01/27/record-number-firework-related-eye-injuries-new-years-celebrations 

Source 5- Veritaserum 

serum, verita. (2023, July 7). The Hidden Science of Fireworks. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfkjm2YRG-Q&t=963s