As beautiful and exciting as fireworks may seem, hidden underneath is a dark side responsible for fear, heartache and tragedy.
As usual fireworks were set off on New Year’s Eve in eMalahleni.
Some embrace this and others despise this.
On the evening of December 31 dogs went ballistic at the sound and sight of the fireworks going off.
One dog owner can recall the fear her dogs experienced: “We were at home and we closed our dogs on our porch so that they can be in a safe environment in case someone decides to fire fireworks,” Mrs Helen Coetzee explained.
“As we suspected fireworks were set off and my dogs were hysterical, I had to feed them some snacks just to try and distract them from what was going on. One of my dogs panicked and tried to get through the safety gate, luckily we saw this and managed to save her without any injuries, we are some of the lucky ones.”
In Klipfontein, Odendaal Street’s New Year ’s Eve ended on a tragic note after a dog panicked because of the fireworks that was fired and sadly died after being stuck in palisades.
SACCW first responders headed to the scene as soon as the call was made on their Zello open channel.
JP Moore one of the first responders attended to the scene along with Yolandé Bezuidenhoud who tried to save the dog.
Unfortunately the dog’s injuries were too severe and it passed away.
“In my personal opinion I feel that fireworks and the selling of fireworks should be banned completely,” Mrs Coetzee explained. “Fireworks should be kept off our streets and shouldn’t even be sold.”
WITBANK NEWS reached out to Emalahleni Local Municipality regarding the laws around fireworks in our city but unfortunately no response had been received before going to print.
