The Philippines: Hundreds Injured in Revelry

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/world/asia/the-philippines-hundreds-injured-by-fireworks.html

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New Year’s firecrackers left at least one man dead and 380 others injured, and caused a fire that gutted 1,000 dwellings in the Philippines despite rain and a government warning campaign, officials said Friday. A drunken man in Manila, the capital, lighted a powerful firecracker and embraced it as it exploded, ripping his jaw and killing him, Health Secretary Janet Garin announced. Fire officials said that a rocket ignited by revelers started a fire that spread rapidly, destroying about 1,000 shacks and huts in the capital’s Tondo slum district and displacing several thousand families. Ms. Garin said that rain late Thursday and a government public-service campaign that involved showing gory pictures of people who have been injured by firecracker blasts helped to keep the number of injuries below last year’s figure.