January 20, 2025
Emergency crews arrived at a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighborhood after a large New Year's firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people and injured more than 20 others, several of them critically.
Two women died at the scene and a third woman died at a hospital, authorities said Wednesday as they implored people to abandon their New Year's tradition of setting off fireworks across the city. Officials promised tougher penalties for illegal fireworks.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green graphically described the deaths in a news conference Wednesday to emphasize the potential danger of fireworks. “We’re talking about the worst possible, war-zone injuries that took their lives.”
The blast happened at a three-story home with a bottom-level carport. Piles of debris including bundles of blackened firework mortars could be seen in front of the house in Wednesday's daylight.
The explosion broke windows across the street. It happened when a lit bundle of aerial, mortar-style fireworks called a “cake” tipped over or fell off a table and fired sideways into crates containing additional fireworks, which then exploded.
The cake's rounds could be separated but had been lit as a bundle of 50, part of what officials said was tens of thousands of dollars' worth of fireworks at the home.
“I’ve been in EMS over 30 years and this is probably one of the worst calls I’ve ever been on as far as the immense tragedy and amount of patients and severity of the injuries,” Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Dr. Jim Ireland said.
In recent years, occasions large and small — parties, Super Bowls, mixed-martial arts fights, even Thanksgiving — have provided a reason for residents across Hawaii to set off illegal fireworks.
The increasingly sophisticated displays, loved by some and loathed by others, are so prevalent that some people consider them part of the state's culture. They have rattled neighborhoods of tightly packed houses, started fires, terrorized pets, and knocked a light fixture off the ceiling of an Associated Press reporter’s home, where it narrowly missed a child and shattered on the floor.
Authorities and residents alike are now wondering whether this year's toll will dissuade people from putting on such shows in the future, or whether it will prompt more effective efforts by police to crack down.
“This incident is a painful reminder of the danger posed by illegal fireworks,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi told a news conference. “They put lives at risk, they drain our first responders and they disrupt our neighborhoods.”
Efforts to crack down on contraband fireworks have had limited effect. In 2023, lawmakers created an illegal fireworks task force. Based on the ease with which it seized fireworks, including three shipping containers in its first few months in operation, the state Department of Law Enforcement concluded illegal fireworks are likely smuggled into Hawaii on a daily basis.
The task force has seized 227,000 pounds of fireworks in all, according to Gov. Josh Green.
And yet, the Honolulu Fire Department reported Thursday that there were 30 fireworks-related blazes between Tuesday and Wednesday, a 30% increase from last New Year's celebrations.
Rep. Gregg Takayama, who sponsored legislation passed last year to tighten fireworks controls, said he remembers setting them off when he was younger and agrees it’s a tradition for many. But the ones he played with, including Roman candles, pale in comparison to those on the black market today.
“The kind of aerial fireworks that are being used now are really explosive bombs,” he said. “And so the danger is magnified.”
Charmaine Doran, the vice-chair of the neighborhood board in Pearl City, northwest of Honolulu, called the notion that fireworks are part of Hawaii culture a misconception: “They have been outlawed for all of my life ... and I’m pretty old.”
In her neighborhood, the fireworks ramp up after Halloween, exploding in the middle of the night until New Year’s. Doran said she can tell if there is a big mixed martial arts fight on TV because the booms begin earlier in the day.
Enforcement is complicated because people are reluctant to report their neighbors on a small island where “we’re related to everybody, everybody knows everybody,” Doran said.
People fear retribution, she added: “If I dial 911, they’re going to egg my house.”
That was the theme of some testimony to the Legislature last January. Beverly Takushi, a Pearl City resident, described once being threated by a neighbor when she told his brother to stop launching illegal fireworks in a show that lasted from 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve until after midnight.
“It was the first time I was threatened not only by the danger of the aerial fireworks to my family and property, but also for my safety from this neighbor who accused me of not respecting his culture,” Takushi said. “He has since apologized, but this is the reason why no one wants to get involved and report their neighbors setting off bombs and aerials.”
Takushi echoed Takayama's point about the big difference between today's large, professional-grade fireworks and the smaller ones of yesteryear.
“A string of firecrackers at midnight to ward off bad spirits is cultural, not loud explosives that sound like you are in the middle of a war," Takushi said.
Richard Oshiro, secretary of the neighborhood board for Waipahu, known as one of Oahu’s hotspots for aerial displays, said he hopes this week's deaths will spur a change of mentality about playing with explosives.
He said he tries to report them whenever he can, even though he knows there is not much police can do if “they can’t catch people in the act.”
Possession of over 50 pounds of aerial or other illegal fireworks in Hawaii is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Takayama noted the law now allows photographs and videos of fireworks to be submitted as evidence in court, but said prosecutions still face hurdles.
“We already have laws on the books. We need to find better ways to enforce them,” he said. "I mean we constantly hear about people who report on their neighbors using illegal aerials, but nothing is done about it.”
The best way to control fireworks is to stop them at Hawaii’s ports, Takayama said. Law enforcement has intelligence about which shipments contain illegal fireworks and U.S. authorities have the power to open suspicious cargo. The task force has made seizures but needs to do more, he said.
“We need to find ways to restrict the amount of fireworks that are coming in, because once they arrive and once they’re in the community, it’s very difficult to track them down,” Takayama said.
