Friday, August 24, 2012

Controversial fireworks

The former socialist mayor of Bigastro, Raúl Valerio Medina  accused the present council of being irresponsible when they allowed fireworks to be set off during the fiesta without the presence of the fire brigade.

The reason there were no fire trucks in attendance was because the town owes 80,000 euros to the Provincial Fire Consortium. However, as Aurelio Murcia points out, the debt was inherited from the previous mandate. He goes on to say that they do have a payment plan to remove the debt and point out that in fact there were no fire trucks present at the fireworks for previous fiestas when the socialists were in control.

I’ve never been down to watch the fireworks that they set off in the large cage. I did speak to someone who did go down this year. It all took place on the 16th at 4am in the morning after the disco in the park finished. Although the person I spoke to was outside the cage, he still managed to get his hair singed by sparks flying over the top.

I recall that, when we first lived here, they used to set off the fireworks on the main street in the town. The scorch marks were visible on the walls of the buildings the next day. Moving the site to waste land was a good move. At least there was no property nearby to damage. 

Setting off fireworks in this way is highly dangerous but then, like running in front of charging bulls, it is part of the Spanish macho image.

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