The Airbomb Squad

Ruaridh Arrow goes undercover to investgate Glasgow's illegal fireworks trade..........

As we duck down behind a low wall we start to take heavy fire from the other side of the road. Rockets screech past a couple of feet above our heads and ricochet off a wall showering us with sparks. The explosions scatter the bus stop queue and send a terrified old woman carrying shopping running for a nearby doorway. But this isn't Sarajevo or downtown Baghdad, I'm standing outside a kebab shop on Great Western Road, and the Air Bomb squad is back.

Over the past few years the misuse of fireworks by young people has rocketed up the political agenda. Hundreds of young people every year are injured by fireworks and the problem has been getting worse. By Christmas 2003 a private members bill pushed through by Bill Tynam MP will ban the sale of the infamous air-bomb, a cheap single tube firework which produces the loud screech and bang so familiar at this time of year. But thousands still remain in circulation and the damage they are capable of causing in the wrong hands is terrible. I wanted to find out who the air-bombers are, where they acquire their weapons of terror, and watch first hand the risks they take.

They meet at dusk in a dark lane overlooking a main road where Gaz, a member of the gang, has agreed to introduce me to his friends, a gang of around twenty 11 to 18 year olds whose only common ground is that they have nothing else to do. These are the ‘young thugs' Patricia Hewitt has recently vowed to, ‘drive off our streets'. Having dressed to blend in, my hat pulled down tightly over my head, the frightening mob who I've seen screaming abuse at passers by and knocking wing mirrors off cars, dissolves into a number of friendly faces offering me joints and huge bottles of cider. I ask Gaz if he has any fireworks and he opens a bag full of airbombs. He is 14 and has never even been asked for proof of age when buying them, ‘even when I'm pissed', he laughs.

‘Do you want to see a crazy chicken?' Gaz asks grinning. Before I can see what he's going to do, he leans over a railing directly above a bus stop and drops a lit firework down onto the queue. ‘CRAZY CHICKEN' scream the gang and more air bombs fly fizzing through the air onto the road. The people below gasp and run, bangs echo and everyone is showered in sparks. ‘Run' shouts Gaz and the gang scatter down a side street. Danny the 18 year old and drunkest of the crowd dispatches a glass Buckfast bottle as a parting shot which hangs in the air and then smashes down into the middle of the road a couple of feet in front of a moving taxi.

Gaz waits for me at the crossroad of the next street and takes me to the next meeting place in the remains of a derelict building. The cold night air is already thick with hash smoke and laughter about the bus queue. I ask if any of them have been hurt before. They laugh at me and 16 year old Ian lifts up his shirt to reveal a 5inch scar across his stomach. ‘One of the boys there stuck a rocket in my trousers and it went off, ripped me open but its ok now.' He grins.

Over some more cider and a few joints they get talking about their firework exploits. ‘The best thing to do is stick an air-bomb in a milk bottle, put it on someone's door handle and ring the bell. The bang shatters the bottle sending glass and sparks flying'. They have also managed to produce rocket guns for attacking buses and shops. By pushing the stick support of the rocket into the end of a plastic cider bottle they can aim and launch the rocket safely by holding the bottle as a support.

But with their ammunition exhausted we head off to the shops to restock. Some of the younger ones wanted to show me how easy it is to buy fireworks. Andrew is 11 years old and looks even younger. In six West End stores he is able to buy air-bombs, rockets and flare generators with no questions asked.

I noted the shops and went back later to ask the owners some difficult questions. In one store Ali, the manager, admitted to selling air-bombs to the 11 year old. He agreed, as a condition of his anonymity, to let me into some trade secrets.

‘We stock the big family boxes of fireworks, but people hardly ever buy them, they're just for show. We make our money on the air-bombs and small packets of rockets which cost about £2 for four'. He knows he can't legally sell to under 18's but says, ‘when they beg you and beg you, its easy to give in because you remember what it was like to be that age.'

Ali prints off the till roll which shows that the shop has made around £20 from these types of fireworks today. He expects to make at least £100 on them during the course of a week, a significant proportion of his turnover.

I move on with Gaz and the gang to a local park where the combination of cheap alcohol bought by some of the older boys and the fireworks begins to have dangerous consequences. On the way to the park Danny drops an air-bomb through the letterbox of a tenement, resulting in a massive bang which shocks the building. A man who lives in the ground floor flat manages to prevent a small fire in the close from spreading. The gang scatter into the night again knowing they can quickly regroup at a place of their choosing by texting each other. The police can't keep up with gangs who can disappear in seconds and re-materialise so efficiently, and the kids know it.

I double back to the scene of the bombing and talk to the fire brigade who have just arrived. They have lost count of the number of incidents of this type they have attended tonight and one fire-fighter despairs, ‘there is no doubt that youths are now using fireworks as ammunition, the potential for tragedy is huge.'

When I catch up with the gang again I ask Danny why he put the firework through the letterbox; ‘It's the buzz man', he says, looking manically into my eyes. ‘Life's shite, and when you get that buzz you can never go back.' Sadly ‘the buzz' for these kids is not one they think can be replaced by youth groups or organised five a side football.

John Woodhead of the British Fireworks Association says the law on fireworks at the moment is a mess but will improve radically with the passing of the 2003 fireworks Bill. ‘It will be a serious offence for adults to supply fireworks to children, possession of fireworks by under 18's in a public place will be illegal and no packets of rockets will cost less than £5.'

In addition the air-bomb, the cause of misery for so many people at this time of year will be banned. ‘Some are still in circulation from last year but we expect stocks to have been expended by Novemeber 2004' says John.

Unfortunately that will be too late for some. Statistically over the next three weeks over a hundred 11 to 16 year olds in the UK will sustain injuries from fireworks bought from irresponsible retailers and hundreds more of us will be caught in the crossfire.

Related Links

Latest on the law on fireworks from BBC news

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3237225.stm