How to Keep Kids Safe While Bursting Crackers

Decide, out loud, who lights and who watches the children, before anyone strikes a match. One adult runs the ignition for the whole session; a second adult (or the same one, if you're alone) keeps the children at the marked distance and doesn't let that job drift while the lighting adult is busy with a cracker. Confusing these two roles mid-session, everyone drifting toward the action at once, is when a stray spark finds someone who wasn't supposed to be that close.

Standing at the spot you marked out, watching, not moving toward the ignition point out of excitement. If your child is old enough to hold an already-lit sparkler under your direct supervision, that happens after you've lit it and stepped back with them, at arm's length, never while you're mid-ignition on something else. Dress children in thick cotton, not synthetic, with loose sleeves and dupattas tied back, before the session starts, not halfway through when someone's already close to a spark.

Pour a large quantity of cool running water on the burnt area immediately. Keep cooling it, but don't prolong it to the point of causing hypothermia, and don't reach for oil, haldi, ice, raw cotton or ointment; ice actually deepens the injury. For an eye burn, wash under running tap water for 10 minutes and get to a hospital. For a serious burn, put out any smouldering clothing, remove it, wrap the child in a clean bedsheet and get to a burns specialist or major hospital, driving carefully rather than fast. The session stops there; nobody lights another cracker while this is happening.