If you're lighting the fuse, stay off the booze.

That's the message being sent out by a leading fireworks company who have launched their own campaign against mixing drink and fireworks.

Bob Claydon, of Dynamic Fireworks, said: "There is a lot of concern within the industry that people will forget the fact that they will be drinking and then going and lighting fireworks.

"In safety terms it is a bit like drinking and driving. With the millennium celebrations its going to be totally different to bonfire night in how they will go about things.

"On bonfire night people in charge of the displays tend to drink coke and dish out hamburgers. But on New Year's Eve many people will be drinking all night."

The campaign was launched on Wednesday, with posters going up near Colchester Fire Station, on Cowdray Avenue.

The Colchester launch formed part of a national campaign, which got off the ground with the help of Spice Girl Emma Bunton.

Just weeks ago, the team at Dynamic Fireworks arranged the displays for Miss Bunton's birthday bash in north London.

And on the night of the millennium the team will be out again arranging the fireworks for Lowestoft, the first town in the UK to see in the next century.

It will involve more than 2,000 separate fireworks at a cost stretching into five figure amounts.

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