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Blackpool's firework terror
FIREWORK throwing yobs have left a young girl with a broken arm and a pensioner living in fear.
They are just two of the victims in a growing number of shocking cases seen ahead of Bonfire Night.
Blackpool Police have dealt with 23 firework-related incidents in the last week alone while Lancashire Fire Service has already turned out to 66 calls in connection with bonfires.
Emergency service bosses fear things will get worse ahead of tomorrow night.
Lancashire's Chief Fire Officer, Peter Holland, said: "Firework injuries continue to keep our hospital Accident and Emergency departments in Lancashire among the busiest in the country before, during and after Bonfire Night."
A 13-year-old girl was today nursing a broken arm after falling from her bike while fleeing a gang of youths setting fireworks off in Rossall.
And in the latest incident a firework blasted into the kitchen of a Fleetwood pensioner before shooting around her flat.
June Owen, 60, who had open heart surgery in May, screamed in terror as the rocket bounced around her first-floor apartment on Cherry Tree Court. The firework struck at 10pm on Sunday, filling her home with smoke and burning furnishings.
"I haven't been able to eat or sleep. It's shock really," said Mrs Owen.
"I was in bed and the next thing I knew there was a big boom and then a big flash and there was a series of flashes. I just sat up and screamed. I couldn't see, the place was absolutely full of smoke I didn't know what it was straight away.
"It was like a bomb going off, it was so loud. An ordinary firework would not have done that, it must have been one of those very powerful ones."
The incident involving the young cyclist happened at 4pm on Thursday near the Coastwatch look-out shelter at Rossall Point.
Witnesses reported seeing youngsters playing with fireworks before one escaped and flew towards the 13-year-old girl as she rode past with a friend.
She fell off her bike, breaking her arm on the sea wall as she tumbled.
Staff from the NCI rushed to help and told The Gazette it had been a "terrible" incident.
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Weather for Blackpool
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
