Son hopeful for change after mother's fireworks death

The son of a woman who died after fireworks were stuffed through her letterbox has said he is hopeful the government will bring about a change to regulations.

Alan Smith, from Romford in east London, has been campaigning for the sale of fireworks to be restricted ever since his mother Josephine died in 2021.

He said a meeting with under secretary of state for business and trade Kate Dearden on Monday gave him the "impression that she might actually progress things".

The meeting came ahead of a parliamentary debate over two petitions calling for tougher regulations of fireworks.

Josephine Smith died after two teenagers, Kai Cooper, 18, and 15-year-old Callum Dunne, put a lit firework through the letterbox of her home, which started a fire.

When buying the fireworks Cooper asked the shopkeeper "what are the good ones to let off at people?", and the pair had thrown fireworks at passing cars and into shop doorways before targeting the 88-year-old's house.

One of the petitions calls for the sale of fireworks to be restricted to licenced bodies putting on organised firework displays.

Smith, who previously submitted a similar petition to Parliament, said: "What inspired me to take action was that when these the two boys went to buy the fireworks, they said clearly they were going to terrorise people and they went on to do exactly as they said."

The three-hour debate saw MPs sharing stories of Londoners who have been negatively affected by fireworks.

MP for Leyton and Wanstead Calvin Bailey told of a mother who "was chased down the high street by some children firing fireworks at her and her own kids".

Helen Maguire, MP for Epsom and Ewell, said "hundreds" of her constituents had contacted her about the issue including about the impact of loud bangs on animals.

Helen Whitelegg, from Redwings Ada Cole horse sanctuary in Essex, is behind the second petition debated on Monday, calling for a legal noise reduction of fireworks.

She said horses often run around "in panic" due to the loud noise, endangering themselves and others.

One horse, Cinders, suffered such severe bone damage as a result that she had to be put down.

"Very loud explosive fireworks in particular can trigger that flight response and send them panicking," she said.

Both petitions are backed by Smith and his local MP Julia Lopez, who said there had been another case of someone dying after fireworks being "posted into his house", adding: "This is causing a lot of concern across the country."

Responding to the petitions in Parliament on Monday, Dearden said the issue continued to be a "key priority of [her] department" which would "continue to consider" the proposals in order to "mitigate the impact of the illegal use of fireworks on our communities".

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