{"id":706170,"date":"2026-05-31T11:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706170\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:18:22","slug":"worksafe-investigating-after-fireworks-disaster-at-hobart-cracker-night-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706170\/","title":{"rendered":"WorkSafe investigating after fireworks disaster at Hobart Cracker Night event"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tasmanian government is investigating after a fireworks display at a community event in Hobart\u2019s northern suburbs went horribly wrong.<\/p>\n

The incident on Saturday night saw fireworks shoot into the crowd and hit spectators.<\/p>\n

A Tasmanian government spokesperson said WorkSafe was \u201caware of the incident and was investigating\u201d.<\/p>\n

WorkSafe Tasmania said permit holders who break the conditions of their permit can be hit with fines of up to $2,050, or up to $10,250 in serious cases following prosecution.<\/p>\n

\"\"The fireworks incident occurred at a community event in Claremont on Saturday night. Image \/ via Pulse<\/p>\n

\u201cType 2 Fireworks Permit holders are subject to a range of permit conditions that apply when using fireworks,\u201d a WorkSafe Tasmania spokesperson told Pulse.<\/p>\n

The incident occured at a public Cracker Night event in Claremont, organised by a local property owner to raise funds for the Claremont Junior Football Club.<\/p>\n

\"\"Video showed fireworks flying across the ground and exploding between spectators. Image \/ via Pulse<\/p>\n

The organiser, Craig Walker, had been taking gold coin donations for entry to the event on his Russell Road property.<\/p>\n

Video taken by spectators shows fireworks flying across the ground and exploding between groups of people.<\/p>\n

One witness, who asked not to be named, said fireworks began firing horizontally into the crowd shortly after the 7pm display started, hitting multiple people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we were under attack and we had to run to our car,\u201d she told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\"\"The fireworks incident occurred at a community event in Claremont on Saturday night<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were just screaming and parents were trying to watch but protect their children at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The witness said she was hit in the chest hard enough to be knocked backwards, while her son was struck on his ear.<\/p>\n

Her friend\u2019s daughter was hit twice as they tried to flee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no safety \u2026 there was no barriers for people to keep back, there was nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Video showed fireworks flying across the ground and exploding between spectators. Image \/ via Pulse<\/p>\n

Many people quickly fled the event after the incident.<\/p>\n

The event organiser did not respond to calls from Pulse.<\/p>\n

Permit holders are required to set off fireworks on properties of at least 1,000 square metres, with displays limited to set time windows between 7:00pm and 8:30pm.<\/p>\n

The event was one of 610 permitted fireworks displays held across Tasmania this year for the state\u2019s annual Cracker Night celebrations, with 12 tonnes of fireworks sold statewide.<\/p>\n

\"\"Some 610 permitted fireworks displays were held across Tasmania over the weekend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tasmanian government is investigating after a fireworks display at a community event in Hobart\u2019s northern suburbs went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-706170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}