Firework manufacturers in Bulacan.
Manila - Five people were killed and more than 300 injured in accidents as the Philippines welcomed 2010 with rowdy New Year's Eve celebrations, police said.
The fatalities included a mother and her 5-year-old son who died in a fire that engulfed a pyrotechnics store in Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental province, 795 kilometres south of Manila.
Chief Superintendent Danilo Empedrad, a regional police director, said the accident occurred late Thursday when a test-fired rocket hit a stock of firecrackers, triggering explosions and the fire.
"Five-year-old Juros Guibone was sleeping inside the store when it happened," he said. "His mother, Jocelyn, tried to rescue her son, but both of them were trapped inside.
"One person died in a fire that razed 25 stalls selling firecrackers Thursday in Munoz City in the northern province of Nueva Ecija, police said.
Investigators were still determining what caused the blaze, but some witnesses told police that the fire broke out when a lighted cigarette was thrown near the stalls.
In Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, two teenagers died when a footbridge collapsed as they were standing on it while watching fireworks 20 minutes before the turn of the year.
Five people were also injured in the accident, police Chief Superintendent Angelo Sunglao said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said 340 people were hurt during New Year's Eve and rushed to hospitals after suffering firecracker-related injuries throughout the Philippines. Duque said there were also 22 cases of stray bullet injuries caused by indiscriminate firing of guns in the air during New Year's Eve. The figures brought to nearly 600 the number of people hurt by firecrackers and stray bullets from December 21 to 31, down 15 per cent from last year's tally, he said.
Duque reiterated his call for a ban on the use of firecrackers in residential areas and the need to strictly enforce restrictions on their manufacture and safety. Filipinos traditionally set off firecrackers and make a lot of noise on New Year's Eve in the belief that they will drive away the bad luck of the past year and attract good luck in the coming year.
Duque said the Health Department should come up with "scarier strategies" to discourage firecracker use and be more successful in preventing injuries and deaths. "We are up against cultural belief that firecrackers drive away bad spirits," he said, "but what the public should know is that the firecrackers are the evil spirits themselves."Copyright DPA
A young boy is evacuated to receive treatment in Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital, Manila, after he was injured by a firework on January 1, 2010. (Photo credit NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)