Fireworks disposal needs regulation

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 19, 2013

~~<p>Local company officials face federal charges for allegedly lacking a permit at a Waikele storage facility where an explosion of imported fireworks killed five employees two years ago, but a federal report spreads the blame for the blast. The lack of effective rules for safe fireworks disposal needs to be remedied, and a crucial question remains about how dangerous imported fireworks like those at Waikele were handled by workers lacking expertise.</p>
<p>Five employees of Donaldson Enterprises were killed in April 2011 by an explosion and fire at Waikele Self Storage, in a tunnel converted from a Navy ammunition storage bunker cut into a solid rock hillside. However, neither federal contractors VSE Corp. nor Thomas E. Blanchard & Associates Inc. of Michigan used personnel who had "necessary backgrounds and expertise to recognize the hazards," according to a new report by the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Instead, they relied on the expertise of subcontractor Donaldson, which also was "insufficient" in analyzing the fireworks hazard.</p>
~~

Local company officials face federal charges for allegedly lacking a permit at a Waikele storage facility where an explosion of imported fireworks killed five employees two years ago, but a federal report spreads the blame for the blast. The lack of effective rules for safe fireworks disposal needs to be remedied, and a crucial question remains about how dangerous imported fireworks like those at Waikele were handled by workers lacking expertise.

Five employees of Donaldson Enterprises were killed in April 2011 by an explosion and fire at Waikele Self Storage, in a tunnel converted from a Navy ammunition storage bunker cut into a solid rock hillside. However, neither federal contractors VSE Corp. nor Thomas E. Blanchard & Associates Inc. of Michigan used personnel who had "necessary backgrounds and expertise to recognize the hazards," according to a new report by the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Instead, they relied on the expertise of subcontractor Donaldson, which also was "insufficient" in analyzing the fireworks hazard. Login for more...