Sparks flew at a Tuesday night meeting over a proposal to set off on a Nanakuli chicken farm 5,400 pyrotechnic devices, which have remained sitting for years on 39 pallets inside the Waikele storage bunker where five men were killed in a 2011 fireworks explosion.

Nanakuli resident George Grace said: “It was shipped here on a container, take it back on a container and ship it back out. Don’t ruffle a community. … Someohow I think we’re going to pay.”

Nanakuli Maili Neighborhood Board member Patti Teruya said: “We’re not going to support it.

“These are homes that can light up fast. You label these as explosives. You insult my community. It’s an insult you propose something like this.”

Many of the 120 people in attendance voiced their opposition over setting off a portion of the 5,400 fireworks  once every month for six months by professional fireworks display company Grucci Inc. at the Paakea Road farm.

The neighborhood board voted to oppose disposal of the fireworks in the area.

Deputy Health Director Gary Gill said he would urge the contractor to find another disposal location.

The Department of Health has a 45-day comment period on Grucci’s proposal, commencing Oct. 14 when a public notice was printed in the Star-Advertiser, for a 90-day emergency permit to store and dispose of the fireworks at 87-879 Paakea Road, with plans for a 90-day extension.

Steven Chang, chief of the Department of Health’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, said prior to the meeting, “We want to hear from the community. … The director will make a decision based on the community’s input.”

Chang said the Health Department did not go to the community before posting the public notice because it wanted the main parties present.

Grucci Inc.’s Hawaii representative Tom Likos, who was on the East Coast on Tuesday, declined to discuss the matter prior to the meeting.

But Chang said before the meeting that Likos provided more information Monday in a telephone conference from New York, clarifying procedural details.

Likos told health officials the fireworks are 1.3G commercial-grade fireworks not 1.4G fireworks, which are consumer grade, and shoot 25 to 50 feet high.

Likos went into the Waikele bunker and found the pyrotechnic devices, 1-inch in diameter, and up to 10 inches tall, were packed in containers that were mislabeled as  consumer fireworks, Chang said.

Chang said the U.S. Department of Treasury had contracted a Virginia-based company, URS, which subcontracted Grucci. The Health Department had been in talks with the Treasury Department for more than 18 months, but URS got involved in 2014 and has been looking for a suitable site.

Grucci had set off fireworks two New Year’s Eves at the Paakea Road property prior to 2013.

The illegal fireworks were brought into Honolulu and were confiscated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and are under the Treasury Department’s custody, Chang said.

Grucci proposes to truck them in once monthly in batches of 900 “cakes” from the Waikele storage bunker and ignite them in groups, taking 30 to 45 seconds a group.

Likos “said it will take 3 to 5 minutes to do 900 devices,” Chang said.

Grucci’s team of people would set them off after dark, in order to spot the unburnt more easily, and they will collect the debris.

Chang said Grucci provided an aerial map of the property, and the boundaries for the fireworks.

“We’re relying on them, and the Fire Department will be there,” Chang said. For nonprofessionals who don’t read instructions, they can shoot them off and they may land on a neighbor’s rooftop, he said.

“We don’t have experts in the area of fireworks,” Chang said. “We’re just trying to understand this process.”

He said the department has dealt with munitions disposal by the military, including the Army, which brought in special equipment from the mainland to detonate a large amount of devices, but that equipment was returned.

He said that the Health Department is looking into detonating the fireworks at Schofield Barracks, but that would require the Army to accept it.

“We don’t want this stuff sticking around,” Chang said. “There are more things that can go wrong.”

He said in police-confiscated fireworks, the usual method is to put them into a 55-gallon barrel and explode them.

 A federal report released January 2013 on the 2011 explosion and fire that killed five Donaldson Enterprises Inc. workers, said the company obtained a 90-day emergency hazardous waste disposal permit to destroy the fireworks, which is what Grucci is seeking.

The report said that while the Health Department requested Donaldson’s disposal plan, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said they found no evidence that DOH personnel conducted additional analysis to better understand (Donaldson’s) disposal plan.”

The report said board investigators were told Health Department officials were more focused on environmental protection than safety.

It also said “DOH personnel lacked the requisite background to analyze proposed disposal methodology, experience and qualifications when issuing the permit.”

The report recommended the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council and the Treasury Department institute rigorous safety provisions throughout the federal contracting process dealing with the storage, handling and disposal of explosive hazardous materials, including fireworks.

Chang responded saying Donaldson failed to follow its disposal plan, which was to soak the fireworks in diesel, then burn them in an open area. Instead they failed to follow their plan by cutting the cakes open, exposing the gunpowder in a dry state, and that’s when a spark ignited the fireworks.