New Year mayhem kills two, injures hundreds

Stray bullets and exploding firecrackers have killed two and injured hundreds in the Philippines, authorities said yesterday, amid the country’s traditional riotous New Year celebrations.
A drunk man died after he embraced a giant firecracker, called “Goodbye Philippines”, as it was about to explode, health secretary Janet Garin told reporters.
“His jaw was shattered. He was so intoxicated he hugged the Goodbye Philippines,” Garin said, adding the man was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Eighty per cent of the country’s 100mn people are Catholic but Filipino superstition dictates making ear-shattering noises during New Year’s Eve to ward off bad luck.
Revellers set off firecrackers and shoot guns into the air to celebrate the December festive season.
The health department listed 380 injuries due to fireworks and four others due to stray bullets.
In many hospitals across the country, firecracker victims rushed into emergency rooms grimacing in pain as they held their bloodied limbs.
An eight-year-old boy in the northern farming province of Nueva Vizcaya had three of his fingers amputated after a firecracker exploded in his hands, Garin said.
At least nine children had their fingers amputated due to firecracker injuries, she said.
In a Manila shantytown, a lit firecracker started a slum inferno, which quickly spread, fire bureau spokesman Renato Marcial told AFP.
The huge fire left 84 families homeless in Barangay 56 Pericohon, a quarter past midnight on Thursday.
Tacloban City fire chief Chief Inspector Charlie Gerzon said the fire that started around 12.15am was finally put out around three in the morning.
Damage was estimated at P2mn.
Gerzon said the firefighters had a hard time putting out the fire because of the area’s narrow passages.
It was the third fire to hit the residential area in the last three years. The fire chief said that fire hit the area before Election Day in 2013 and in 2014.
City disaster officer Johnny Yu told AFP that the blaze left 3,000 people homeless.
Panicked and weeping residents fled their burning homes carrying clothes and furniture while men, many of whom were drunk from a night of merrymaking, desperately tried to put out the fire with buckets of water, an AFP photographer at the scene saw.
A 65-year-old woman died from a heart attack as she watched her house burn, Yu said.
Meanwhile, Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco said yesterday that there was no report of firecracker and stray bullet-related injuries, and praised the authorities for efficient enforcement of an ordinance banning all types of pyrotechnic devices and firecrackers in the city.
She added that police authorities and the local health office reported that the holiday festival went on smoothly.
Zamboanga banned the sale of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices, including pellet guns, in support of the department of health’s campaign and advocacy against the use of all these dangerous and hazardous small explosive devices in welcoming the New Year through an ordinance passed in 2014.
Many Filipinos keep licensed guns in their homes to protect themselves in a high-crime society and most firecrackers are legal and easily available.
The 384 injuries recorded so far for 2015 are up from 354 in 2014.