24 hurt by firecrackers on Christmas Day

Five individuals, including three minors, lost either their hands or fingers on Christmas Day due to severe injuries from illegal firecrackers.

Based on the latest fireworks-related injury (FWRI) report of the Department of Health (DOH), five of the 24 new blast injuries recorded from 6 a.m. of Dec. 25 to 5:59 a.m. of Dec. 26 underwent amputations, either with “lost or mangled fingers and hands.”

“To blame are the illegal ‘boga,’ ‘plapla,’ 5-star and goodbye Philippines … and the legal whistle bomb,” the DOH said in a bulletin on Tuesday.

The makeshift cannon-like boga as well as 5-star were among the top causes of firecracker injuries in recent years.

In a statement, health deputy spokesperson Albert Domingo said the five severe injuries were “the first instances needing amputation this holiday season.”

They were from the regions of Metro Manila, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Central Visayas and Davao, he noted.

The new cases brought the total number of people hurt by the use of firecrackers to 52 since the DOH started its monitoring on Dec. 21.

The victims were aged 5 to 52 years old, with a median age of 13.

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Most of the fresh injuries occurred either at home (11 cases) or in the streets (11 cases). One was reportedly held at a designated area, while the site of the remaining case was unidentified.

Metro Manila logged the most number of injuries at 20 cases, accounting for 38 percent of the total case count since Thursday last week.

Central Luzon was a distant second with six cases, followed by Soccsksargen with five cases. INQ