DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE has appealed to people not to put themselves in danger this Halloween.

Launching its ‘Be Safe – Stay Safe’ campaign this morning, the fire service demonstrated for a group of schoolchildren how easily they could sustain very serious injuries by using fireworks or by getting close to a bonfire.

District officer David Kavanagh said the fire service is trying to get people to think about their actions this Halloween.

In Ireland fireworks are illegal and unfortunately most fireworks brought in here don’t come with a safety certificate. Say with a Black Cat firework, people would be familiar with those, people think they can light them and throw them. Some of them, when you light them they will actually explode and unfortunately if they explode in your hand, it is like a little bomb, you’ll lose limbs and fingers.

“This is the gory side, which is not the goblins or the ghosts, this is the horrible side that unfortunately the fire brigade sees every year and we’re hoping to eliminate that,” he said. 

After the demonstration, 11-year-old Abbey Doherty from Holy Family Senior National School, Rivervalley told TheJournal.ie that these kinds of warnings do impact on how she and her friends think about activities around Halloween.

“You don’t want that to happen to you ever – you wouldn’t want your face to be injured, you wouldn’t want anything to be injured. You know that it will change your life forever and you won’t be able to go back and do things differently again,” she said. 

She will be dressing up as a “dead footballer” this Halloween – and staying well away from bonfires.

If you are looking for some local – and safe – Halloween events to attend in Dublin, here’s a list the council has put together.