Vancouver delays city fireworks ban

The Vancouver, Canada City Council Thursday deferred for two weeks a decision on a motion to ban the sale of fireworks.

Staff are to report by then on how fireworks are licensed elsewhere for family use and whether the city has the legal power to ban their sale.

In 2005, there were 34 fireworks-related fires that did $7,500 in damage. In 2007, there were 40 fires and $79,700 damage, including two vehicles, seven structures and blazes in dumpsters, port-a-potties and trees.

Thursday's motion would have banned all sales of fireworks except to licensed users putting on community displays.

The delay came after a list of speakers, some of them doctors, painted grim pictures of injuries suffered by children who had underestimated the power of Halloween explosives -- one burned while trying to determine why a device failed to explode -- or who had been watching from a distance their parents had assumed was safe.

In one case, a child was burnt when a rocket took a wandering route and flew up her sweater as her father held her.

The arguments appeared to move NPA councillors but not the opposition, who insisted a full ban would punish families and ethnic communities who use fireworks responsibly.