A 20-year-old man with serious face injuries has been taken to Southland Hospital after being hit directly in the eye with a firework. The man was taken from Waikaka, just north of Gore, to Southland Hospital in Invercargill in the early hours of this morning. A St John northern communications shift manager said this morning the patient had burns to his arm. Fire service northern communications shift manager Scott Osmond said firefighters were called to about a dozen fireworks-related incidents overnight but the Pukekohe incident was the only major event. In the bottom half of the North Island, about half a dozen callouts were fireworks-related, fire’s central communications shift manager said.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 04, 2017 19:41 UTC