A Bunch of People Got Hurt During the Northern Territory's 'Firecracker Night'

Here’s something you might not know about the most bonkers part of Australia. On the first of July, every July, the Northern Territory celebrates self-governance by letting off a bunch of fireworks. It’s a tradition they call Cracker Night.

A bit of background: The NT is the only part of the country you can legally buy fireworks. On Cracker Night, also known as Territory Day, retailers are able to sell them from 9AM to 9PM. You can legally set them off between 6 and 11 PM.

And oh boy, did they let get stuck in this year. The ABC reports that 370 tonnes of the bad boys were let off yesterday. Now in theory that sounds awesome (and I wasn’t there, but I'm sure it was). But there's just one catch—and it's the reason we don’t live in a hedonistic, free-wheeling, firecracker wonderland all year. The reason is that crackers are dangerous.

Watch some crackers going off below. Video by Phillip Ross via Storyful

On Monday night alone there were 770 Triple 0 calls, 450 grass fires, and 27 injuries from fireworks. Luckily, none of the injuries were life-threatening, but a bunch of them involved people’s eyes which is a bummer. Also eight kids were among those hurt.

NT Fire and Rescue watch commander Craig Slack commented: "Territory Day is without doubt one of the busiest days of the year for the fire service, and last night was certainly no exception."

Impressively, only five infringement notices were issued for using fireworks outside of the legal time frame. Which isn’t really that many. Good on you guys for playing by the rules.