There's been a big public debate in Germany prior to the incident whether the sale of firework to private citizens should be limited or completely prohibited. Some Austrian and German cities banned fireworks completely from their inner districts during New Year's Eve. The reactions of the German people have been very divided, furious and emotional, comparable to Americans reacting to a general ban on private firearms. "Personal freedom"!! "It's tradition!!!" "Enough with the nanny state!!!" etc.
As a result, even more fireworks were bought in Austria and Germany at the end of the year.
The Chinese lanterns that apparently caused the Krefeld fire have already been illegal in most parts of Germany, but are nevertheless for sale online.
Personally I absolutely despise fireworks for the noise, the pollution and the risk for accidents and mayhem that come with it, and I am very much in favor of a total ban on the production, possession and use thereof. However I don't really see that happening anytime soon. And even if you did ban it you would have to enforce such a ban and that would be another huge challenge. As Batto pointed out a lot of people still see fireworks as something positive and as a tradition and even the idea of a ban can be counterproductive. Here in Flanders earlier this year a general regional ban was in fact implemented, however towns and cities can deviate from it and make there own regulations on fireworks, and the majority did chose to allow fireworks with limitations. However those limitations are often ignored and the enforcement of those regulations is a challenge, not in the least because police and authorities just don't have the manpower for it and have other priorities. The ban has also since been challenged in constitutional court by fireworks manufacturers.
I am not sure what can actually be done about fireworks but I think the only realistic options would be improved regulations to make the usage of fireworks as safe as possible, improved enforcement, cracking down on places (including online) that sell illegal materials, encouragement and education of the public towards safe and sensible use or lack of use and towards a change of view and much tougher punishments for those who abuse or are negligent. Personally I would very much like to see the fireworks tradition end as soon as possible, but I think I can only hope it will be better controlled in the future, with less accidents and mayhem.
The three women are going to be charged, according to local facebook posts. It seems that they can be held liable in civil court for the damages, but criminal court will be harder, because apparently the place they bought them from didn't say they were illegal.
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I really don't understand that argument for them not to held liable in a criminal court. If you buy say a large kitchen knife I don't think that it comes with warnings that abuse or negligent use could cause serious bodily harm or even death. And yet if you did wrongfully injure or even kill someone with a knife, even through negligence, I believe you would still be held accountable and probably would get a sentence under criminal law. Is there not such a thing also as common sense and prudential conduct? Should it not be assumed that any citizen should have the wherewithal to know that releasing an open flame into the air and into city without any form of control is a really, really bad idea and could go very wrong indeed? Is it too much to assume that it should be expected of any citizen to act responsibly when using dangerous materials, or to be held accountable when negligence results in damage or injury?
Personally I still believe that the people responsible should be held responsible in criminal court, and that it should be up to a judge to determine their criminal responsibility. I also still stand by my view that they should get very serious jailtime (years or even decades) for both negligent arson and animal abuse.
Also, if they are held liable for civil damages, unless they happen to be very wealthy, how are they ever going to pay for all the damage they caused, even if they sell all their property? I'm not even sure how you would even calculate those damages. The value of a building is one thing, but how does one value animals for which there are probably no legal commercial or trade prieces? And would about the emotional damage to zoo staff and such? All very, very difficult to determine.
