Ban fireworks in urban areas, safer options exist

 Rules must reflect the realities of dense city living, and fireworks in their current form are increasingly incompatible with high-density environments.

From Boo Jia Cher

Fireworks in Malaysia have long been associated with joy and celebration. But in today’s dense, vertical cities, they have become something else: a public nuisance, a safety hazard, and a strain on shared urban life.

During festive periods, many neighbourhoods resemble warzones. It is time to acknowledge a simple reality: private fireworks no longer belong in urban Malaysia.

Malaysia is no longer a country of kampungs and open fields. Most people now live in terrace housing and high-rises, where proximity is unavoidable.

In such settings, even small risks escalate quickly. Fireworks are, fundamentally, uncontrolled explosives. Recent incidents make this clear.

In 2026, a man in Segamat lost his leg after a firework exploded while he was setting it off. Weeks later, a teenager in Port Dickson was severely injured after combining firecrackers. In Penang, a small fireworks stall caught fire, destroying most of the stall and damaging nearby property.

The danger is even greater in high-rises. In 2025, an eighth-floor flat in Kajang was 80% destroyed after stored fireworks ignited. In another case, a 22nd-floor flat was destroyed when a firework sparked near a window.

These are not freak accidents, but predictable outcomes, especially in vertical environments where fires spread faster, evacuation is harder, and consequences are magnified.

If any other activity caused injuries, destruction, and property loss on this scale, it would be treated as a public safety crisis, like a health pandemic.

Yet fireworks continue to be normalised, even as the risks scale with urban density.

Health and environment

Fireworks are extremely loud, often exceeding safe noise levels. During festive periods, noise can stretch into the early hours, disrupting sleep across entire neighbourhoods.

The effects add up: fatigue, stress, and reduced concentration. For some, particularly those with trauma-related conditions, fireworks are distressing rather than celebratory.

They also worsen air quality, releasing fine particulate matter, sulfur compounds, and trace heavy metals into already polluted urban air.

Pets panic, bolt, and are often injured or lost. Urban wildlife is similarly affected: birds abandon nests, and fragile ecosystems are disrupted.

Rethinking ‘tradition’

This is ultimately about shared space. Fireworks are private enjoyment with public costs. One household’s celebration produces noise, smoke, debris, and risk for everyone nearby.

In economic terms, this is a clear negative externality, one cities cannot ignore if they are to remain liveable.

Fireworks are often defended as tradition. But their current scale is a recent phenomenon, emerging in the 2000s.

Historically, celebrations were smaller, quieter, and more communal: oil lamps, gatherings, symbolic rituals. Today’s prolonged, high-intensity use is largely a product of mass production and easy availability. What is framed as tradition is, in reality, a modern consumer practice.

Malaysia already regulates fireworks under existing laws, but enforcement is inconsistent, and illegal products remain easy to obtain.

Better ways

Other cities show stricter approaches can work. Singapore limits consumer fireworks to controlled displays. Sydney concentrates them into major public events with clear exclusion zones. Parts of California pair bans with active patrols and community reporting systems.

Malaysia should do the same with such measures:

Ban the sale, possession, and use of consumer fireworks in urban and suburban areas; target enforcement on supply chains, restrict illegal imports, and ensure consistent penalties; equip councils to act quickly, backed by police and community reporting systems.

Safe options

Malaysian society should invest in safer options, like drone shows, light displays, or organised professional fireworks, so celebration can continue without widespread risk.

This is not a choice between culture and control, but between chaos and coexistence. As Malaysia urbanises, its rules must reflect the realities of dense city living. Fireworks, in their current form, are increasingly incompatible with high-density environments.

In 2023, housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming legalised the sale of fireworks, promising control and safety while also opening the door to revenue collection.

In practice, weak enforcement leaves the real burden on residents. That is not neutral; it is a policy choice. A decisive, clear approach is needed, not to end celebration, but to ensure it no longer comes at the expense of safety, health, and quality of life.

We should not have to wait for more injuries or deaths before action is taken. The cost of inaction is already being paid nightly, and by millions. - FMT

 Boo Jia Cher is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.