FIREWORKS

One of the things that Danes go nuts about, along with flags and candles, is fireworks. Not every day, and certainly not on 5 November (when we moved into our house 9 years ago, I invited all of our neighbours to a Bonfire Night evening, an interesting exercise in cultural cross-pollination!). But whenever there is a national event, and always at midnight on New Year's Eve. There is a small hill up the road from where I live, and from there you can see the nearby town 3km away completely lit up for the first hour of the new year, as most of its inhabitants let off a succession of ever bigger/brighter/noisier fireworks. And on a clear night - which it was this year - you can look the other way over the bay and see the same thing happening 15km away. An airplane flying over the country at that time would think that a spontaneous revolution had broken out.

Like most things today, these fireworks are not made in Denmark, but in China (which has its own long tradition of such things). Unfortunately, Chinese fireworks are not always made in super-safe factory environments; equally unfortunately, they are not always imported into Denmark in scrupulously legal fashion, or stored properly.

This can cause problems, particularly in the build-up to New Year, when the majority of fireworks are used up. In November 2004, a fire started at a (legal) firework warehouse in Kolding when an employee dropped a load of rockets while he was unloading a 40-foot container from China. The fire service was called; but before they could put out the fire, the container exploded, killing one fireman and injuring seven others. The authorities withdrew and evacuated the area, letting the fire spread to the main warehouse, which then duly exploded. That explosion measured 2.2 on the Richter scale and flattened - literally - 12 businesses and 75 houses in the surrounding area. Total damage was estimated to be kr.750 million (more than US$100 million).

On Saturday it happened again, albeit on a more modest scale. In a village not far from Kolding, an explosion took place at an (illegal) firework warehouse in a disused barracks. A number of houses have been damaged, the village has been evacuated; at least two people have been killed.

When money is involved, people will always take risks. But to me, this is just daft. Fireworks are dangerous; Chinese fireworks are doubly so.

Walter Blotscher