Two are jailed over deaths

The manslaughter convictions of the owner of a fireworks factory and his son have been welcomed by the FBU firefighters’ union.

Martin Winter and his son, Nathan, were given prison sentences of seven and five years respectively after they were found guilty of “gross negligence” over an explosion at the Festival Fireworks factory in East Sussex. The blast killed firefighter Geoff Wicker and video technician and ex-firefighter Brian Wembridge and injured a further 20 people.

The FBU says that the Winters showed total contempt for firefighter and public safety when they stored fireworks in an unlicensed metal container.

But it also says that the lessons of the tragedy have not been properly learned by the government or the fire service.

The government is still encouraging fire services to concentrate on prevention and reducing resources for emergencies with detrimental consequences for the way that firefighters plan, train and deal with emergencies, according to the FBU.

Steve Huggins, FBU brigade secretary for East Sussex said: “Nationally the monitoring and enforcement of fireworks regulations is patchy at best and non-existent at worse. There is very little co-ordination between the agencies which are meant to be responsible for the regulations.”