At least 3 dead, multiple injured in massive New Year's Eve fireworks explosion in Hawaii

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/least-3-dead-multiple-injured-new-
years-eve-fireworks-explosion-rcna185947

At least three people are dead and two dozen are injured after a New 
Year’s Eve fireworks explosion in a Honolulu residential neighborhood, 
officials said.

The explosion occurred at a house 3 miles west of Fort Shafter, the 
headquarters of U.S. Army Pacific. Videos posted to social media by 
neighbors show a rapid series of bursts creating a blinding light next to 
the house as fireworks erupted around the city just after midnight.

Honolulu police said the explosion occurred after someone lit an “aerial 
cake” — a combination of multiple aerial firework cartridges that resemble 
a sheet cake — that fell to the side and rocketed into crates of 
additional caches of pyrotechnics, then erupted outward. Organic material 
from people hit by the blast was found on windows across the street from 
the epicenter.

Two women were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third died later at the 
hospital, police said. Their identities have not yet been released.

“I’ve been in EMS for over 30 years and this is probably one of the worst 
calls I’ve ever been on as far as just the immense tragedy and amount of 
patients and severity of the injuries,” Dr. James Ireland, director of 
Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Services, said at an early morning news 
conference Wednesday. 

Twenty-six people were taken to hospitals, many with significant burn 
injuries. Sunny Johnson, paramedic supervisor for Honolulu Emergency 
Medical Services, said at the early morning news conference — as fireworks 
continued to go off in the background — that it was unclear how many 
additional victims may have been injured and left before emergency 
services arrived. 

At a subsequent news conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Josh Green, a 
physician, said it is “highly likely” that more people will die as their 
lungs are burned out due to the incident.

“This incident is a painful reminder of the danger posed by illegal 
fireworks, which put lives at risk, drain our first responder resources, 
and disrupt our communities,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said. “Year 
after year, a minority of individuals recklessly endanger us all. This is 
absurd and unacceptable.”

Aerial fireworks require a pyrotechnic permit under Hawaiian state law. 
However, only a small minority of attempts to prosecute those violating 
fireworks restrictions result in guilty verdicts or pleas, and they 
usually result in only minor fines, according to a Honolulu Civil Beat 
analysis.

New Year’s Eve fireworks have a long history in Hawaii, where they are a 
strong cultural tradition. For decades, lawmakers have struggled to quell 
the widespread use of them across the state. A multiagency task force was 
established in 2010 to curb illegal fireworks, which, in addition to 
injuring people and pets and damaging property, had become a strain on 
public safety agencies.

Dozens of people are injured every New Year’s Eve in fireworks-related 
incidents across the state, although the number decreased from a high of 
112 in 2009 to 42 in 2019, according to a Hawaiian legislative report that 
year.

Five people were injured by fireworks during this year’s celebrations in 
four other incidents in Oahu, NBC affiliate KHNL of Honolulu reported.

While acknowledging the sensitivity of restricting fireworks given the 
cultural importance they have to some Hawaii residents, officials said the 
deadly incident underlined the inherent risk. They also expressed 
frustration that as emergency rescue workers worked at the scene 
overnight, people were still shooting off fireworks four houses down.

Green said he would push to make it a felony to set off heavy or cake-like 
fireworks, while cautioning that it was not possible to legislate the 
danger away.

“We’ll do all that we can, but it’s going to have to be we as people 
making that decision to not do it,” he said.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and 
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.