‘Cut them off’: Call for fireworks ban after Auckland maunga blaze

Calls to stop the sale of fireworks have been rekindled following a fire on one of Auckland’s protected maunga (mountain).

Auckland councillor and Regulatory and Community Safety Committee chair, Josephine Bartley, says she is fed up with the repeated fires in places such as Mt Wellington.

“Every year, it's on fire,” the Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Ward councillor says.

“I don't know if people understand the mountain is a Māori ancestor, so you're burning an ancestor's head when you go up there and light your fireworks.

“Today [Tuesday] is Guy Fawkes, but people have been letting off fireworks for the last few days. It's really just time now to cut them off. That's enough.

Scorch area on Maungarei Mt Wellington. Photo/Tūpuna Maunga Authority

“People are stupid with fireworks, so we need to get the government to ban them.”

Bartley, who visited the site after the fire on Mt Wellington on November 1, said she was told it was deliberately lit and likely caused by fireworks.

“[People] store their fireworks up there, so that they can go back tonight and light them off. But we will have security, and I'll be there, and when we close the gate, we'll close off access,” she said.

It was confirmed by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) that the fire was started by a discarded cigarette.

Chairperson of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, Paul Majurey, is dissapointed with yet another fire on the Tūpuna Maunga. Photo/Auckland Council

“Fireworks were not involved,” said a Fire and Emergency spokesperson.

Tūpuna Maunga Authority chair Paul Majurey said the fires had become a regular occurrence.

“We are deeply disappointed with yet another fire on the Tūpuna Maunga, places of immense cultural and environmental significance.”

Majurey said fires significantly harmed iconic taonga, posed risks to people and property, and unnecessarily strained Fire and Emergency services.

He said such reckless acts highlighted the need for maunga protections, including closures during the Guy Fawkes season.

Councillor Josephine Bartley and her her dog Milo. Bartley makes Guy Fawkes pet safety personal for her. Photo/PMN News Mary Afemata

Councillor Bartley said firework also caused stress for animals such as her dog Milo, who has cancer.

“He's got an adrenal tumour, and so he can't be overly stressed and excited, otherwise he'll collapse, and so other dogs barking because of the fireworks set him off.”

A petition by Animates to ban the public sale of fireworks received more than 51,000 signatures at 2pm on Tuesday.

Bartley recalls when the late Fa’anānā Efeso Collins and Cathy Casey approached the government on behalf of Auckland Council, requesting a ban on the private use and sale of fireworks, that it was time to try again for the ban.

Former councillors Cathy Casey and the late Fa’anānā Efeso Collins had urged the previous government to ban the private sale of Guy Fawkes fireworks. Photo/Auckland Council

While some might view a fireworks ban as overreach, Bartley argued it’s “different these days” due to public safety and environmental damage.

"I had Guy Fawkes when I was a kid growing up in Māngere, but what we're seeing [in] the last few years are more fires on the mountain, more injuries at emergency departments and hospitals, and more people using fireworks irresponsibly,” Bartley said.

“It’s sad that we have to be a nanny state with banning the fireworks, but Australia’s banned fireworks, and … they’re right to ban it.”

Bartley urged those celebrating Guy Fawkes tonight to be considerate of others by keeping fireworks confined to their backyards and wrapping up by 10pm.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.