Some South Etobicoke groups have banded together to try and get the City to crackdown on those who ignore rules on the use of fireworks and inflict damage to wildlife, pets and people with challenges.

The city promised action at an Economic and Community Development Committee meeting last April, the groups claim, adding they warned the committee that fireworks violations ‘were escalating at an alarming rate threatening our peace and well-being without any response from the city.’

The groups said ‘it was chaos’ last Victoria Day long weekend with more than 100 separate incidents of fireworks each night. The fire display in the Humber Bay Shores area began around 9 p.m. and continued late into the night.

Hundreds of complaints have been filed by residents outraged that pets, wildlife and people are being affected.

Fireworks discharged in Colonel Samuel Smith Park sparked fires leaving five distinct burns areas in the grasses home to nesting swallows, a designated Environmentally Significant.

The grass was set alit by those lighting fireworks; falling ashes are believed to have caused the fires.

“Boxes were found among the debris indicating that some of these fireworks were

designed to shoot 40 to 60 metres (130 – 190’) high,” they wrote. “This was absolute chaos and we are, to be blunt, furious.”

The group, which represents Friends of Sam Smith Park, Friends of Humber Bay Park, Etobicoke Fireworks Remediation Committee and Citizens Concerned about the Future of Etobicoke Waterfront (CCFEW), have been working to improve area parks for many years.

They are calling for a meeting with Mayor John Tory before Labour Day, the next long weekend for fireworks; for more police patrol parks, to shut parking lots on weekends and ban the sale of fireworks.

Bill Zufelt, Chair of the History and Cultural Committee Long Branch, said he’s ‘angry and beyond words.’

“As an avid naturalist and environmentalist the growing behavior and disregard for all living things, by the pandemic of human selfishness and stupidity is utterly appalling,” Zufelt steamed.

Sam Smith park is listed as the Number 3 Bird Hotspot in Toronto with some 268 species, according to e-bird, an online bird database. Tommy Thompson Park and the Toronto Islands are Numbers 1 and 2 for birdwatching in Toronto.

“That is a testament to diversity and quality of the habitats found at this city park,” according to a CCFEW statement.

“The diversity and quality of habitats has earned the park a reputation as one of the premier birding locations in the city,” the group said on its website.

Residents have complained about the hundreds of people who flock to area parks to drink alcohol and light bonfires without wearing masks or social distancing.

Videos show mountains of trash the visitors left behind for others to clean up.

“Wildlife trauma are being dismissed while the non-interventionist aim of the fireworks industry is covered with platitudes and impotent promises,” the groups wrote. “We need an assurance this issue will be prioritized and responded to effectively.”