Oman World Fireworks Championships 2010

                      Lacroix Ruggieri, World Championship 2010 Winners

They love fireworks in Oman. Hundreds of thousands turned out and tuned in on six balmy evenings to watch the Oman World Fireworks Championships 2010 and see some of the best displays fired to music this year.  As well as being a competition, it was also the largest public event in the celebrations for the Sultanate of Oman's 40th National Day.

Fireworks are so obviously hazardous that safety is ingrained into the work methods of professional pyro-technicians, and the six companies taking part were some of the most respected professionals in the world. The most likely causes of injury at this event were the same as in most events: slips trips and falls, working at height, working near vehicles and the added possibility of sunburn, heat stress and dehydration.

Richard Paul-Jones (PJ) there to manage safety for TESS says "There were six displays, each one taking four days to set up. The display site was designed to allow two companies to set up simultaneously. Careful planning and attention to detail saw this system exceed all expectations and the displays were set up, tested and fired with no incidents.

"One of the most difficult aspects of managing safety in the Middle East is working alongside local workers and with their very informal local practices and lax safety culture. We insisted that our UK and Omani crews all complied with UK good practice, a policy which paid off once the local crew understood that we preferred them to be safe than to impress us with the risks they were prepared to take to get the job done. Eidience of the success of this approach is that the only significant entry in the accident book was a puncture wound from a particularly unpleasant thorn bush."