Three of the ten people were seriously injured, which means they will have significantly reduced vision, while the other seven have moderate to serious eye injuries, but shouldn’t lose significant eyesight.

“Four of the injured were bystanders, and one of them suffered serious eye damage”, Nils Bull, a senior medic at the eye department of Haukeland University Hospital, told Norwegian newspaper NRK. Bull added that two people wore safety goggles and would have been more seriously hurt if they hadn’t.

Every year Bull collects national accident figures after New Year’s Eve celebrations, which he described to NRK as a time when “drunk people will handle explosives in large crowds”.

This year those with eye injuries included three men, two women, four boys and one girl. Bull told NRK last year that he had noticed an increasing number of young boys irresponsibly using fireworks.

“I am afraid that this is a new trend, which could have a contagion effect”, he said.

This New Year’s Eve was a busy night for the emergency services across the country. At Haugerud, fireworks were fired at people, buildings, the police and vehicles. Several subway stations in Oslo were closed after fireworks were set off inside the stations and in Kristiansand someone shot fireworks through a window. No one was injured.

In Stord, a man in his 30s was taken to hospital after returning to check on a half-lit firework.

Nils Bull warned that there are three main things that can go wrong when handling fireworks: Being drunk, not wearing safety goggles and not following the rules.

“The rules are that fireworks must be ignited as explosives. In other words, one must use a lighter and retreat quickly. You should not go back if it doesn’t work”, Bull said.

The other rule that is broken is that fireworks are placed on bad surfaces, so that they spin around and shoot in the wrong direction.

Bull added that men are most at risk of getting injured.

“The women and children stand safely with goggles at a good distance and do as they should, but drunk men of all ages, they never learn,” Bull told NRK.

In 2023, the regulations on fireworks and pyrotechnics are set to be revised.

“This year the politicians have the opportunity to put an end to these senseless injuries when they revise the regulations. In 18 years, there have been 273 eye injuries. The only way to put an end to this is by blocking access,” Bull said.

Private fireworks brought in a turnover of 500 million Norwegian krone in 2021, and in the last two years turnover has increased by over 30 percent, according to the Norwegian Fireworks Association.

On 25th December, the association announced that 2022 looked set to be a new record year for the fireworks industry. 

READ MORE: What are the rules for purchasing and setting off fireworks in Norway?