'War-zone injuries': 3 dead, 20+ injured in fireworks blast at Honolulu home

https://www.wfla.com/news/national/war-zone-injuries-3-dead-20-injured-in-
fireworks-blast-at-honolulu-home/

Emergency crews arrived to 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.”

Some of the more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and 
shrapnel wounds included children, said officials who had not yet publicly 
identified any victims including those killed.

Police were investigating whether charges for the person who lit the 
firework near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan 
said.

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.

Ambulance crews arrived but had to triage — separate and treat victims 
with the worst injuries first — several houses away because of parked cars 
and crowds on the streets, Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director 
Dr. Jim Ireland said.

Some people nearby continued setting off fireworks even as blast victims 
were being taken to hospitals, officials said.

The neighborhood is near Honolulu’s international airport and a joint U.S. 
Air Force and Navy base and a little more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) 
east of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, which honors sailors who died in the 
attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II.

“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,” Ireland said in an earlier news 
conference.

A fourth person was killed in a different fireworks explosion elsewhere on 
Oahu, officials said. At least four other serious injuries occurred in 
unrelated fireworks accidents overnight.

Social media posts overnight showed fireworks being set off across wide 
areas of Honolulu even though sparklers, fountains and aerial fireworks 
are illegal and a permit is required to set off firecrackers, according to 
the Honolulu Fire Department.

“We’re angry, frustrated and deeply saddened at this unnecessary loss of 
life and suffering. It’s a tragic way to start the new year,” Mayor Rick 
Blangiardi said. “No one should have to endure such pain due to a reckless 
and illegal activity.”

Green said he was looking into whether new penalties including a felony 
charge for possessing large fireworks are needed to curtail fireworks in 
Hawaii.

Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. John Hanna contributed to this 
report from Topeka, Kansas.


-- 
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 
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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 
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