Previously on the Coastguard Blog....Flares dumped at Coastguard Station.

I was talking to friend, following the blog on Tuesday, who asked why we don't take old flares and pyrotechnics at the Swanage Station - the simple answer is that we are not equipped to store them safely, and we are in a residential area. 

It reminded me of an incident that we reported 15 July 2012 when a bag of flares was left at the station door. We turned up to the station for training , found the bag, opened the bag, put it down very gently, and walked away very quickly. We had to evacuate the building for a short period while we formed a plan to dispose of them. 

Previous blog below:-

This is one of the flares that was dumped at the Coastguard station this week and caused an incident.
It's against the law to use flares in a non-emergency situation or dump them at sea. You also must not discard them irresponsibly - never:

• put flares in carrier bags or drop them in general household rubbish or public litter bins
• leave flares on the doorstep of coastguard rescue equipment stores, sector bases or Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat houses
• dump them anywhere where members of the public could come across them

So based on the law above, "the offender" broke all 3 of the above points.  What is really worrying is the state of the flare, its either been close to a heat source or some sort of chemical - what ever it was it could have made it explode.

These flares WILL KILL if used incorrectly.

There are ways to dispose of time expired pyrotechnics correctly, clearly whoever left them couldn't be bothered , instead putting lives at risk by their actions.