DAGUPAN CITY — At least 25 people, including 12 children, were hurt when baby rockets also known as “kwitis” misfired during a community fireworks display in Barangay Calmay here on New Year’s Eve.
All the injured were transported by boat across the Calmay river and then rushed by ambulances of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) for treatment.
Calmay is one of the island barangays of Dagupan.
Twenty-four of the injured were admitted to R1MC as out-patients and one was hospitalized after doctors found blood coming out from one of his ears.
All those injured were to watch a fireworks display in their village when the baby rocket bombs failed to go up in the air but instead fired horizontally, hitting the crowd.
Before this incident, two others were treated for firecracker eye-related injuries at R1MC.
Before noon of Monday, the number of firecracker victims rushed to R1MC was placed at 40 coming from various parts of Pangasinan.
Ten victims — either blast, burns, and amputation — were brought to the same hospital from midnight to 7 a.m. of New Year’s Day. (PNA)
