Blast tied to lack of regulations

The explosion at a Waikele storage facility that killed five people in 2011, along with a fireworks-related Fourth of July fatality in Kansas, shows a clear "regulatory gap" when it comes to the disposal of fireworks in the United States, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said in a report expected to be released this morning in Washington, D.C.

The board is recommending that several agencies establish rules and policies that might help prevent future fireworks-related tragedies. The five men killed in the Waikele explosion were employees of Donaldson Enterprises, a company subcontracted by Virginia-based VSE Corp., which had a federal contract to dispose of confiscated illegal fireworks in Hawaii and elsewhere.

Among the recommendations:

» The Environmental Protection Agency should revise its regulations to require "a permitting process with rigorous safety reviews" for the disposal of explosive hazardous materials, including fireworks, in place of the EPA’s existing practice of issuing "emergency" permits. Until the regulation is in place, the EPA should issue a policy guidance document on the matter, the report said.

» The National Fire Protection Association should develop "best practices" standards for the disposal of waste fireworks, including language discouraging the disassembly of waste fireworks as a step in the disposal process. At the time of the explosion, the Donaldson employees were dismantling the fireworks so they could be destroyed at a different site.

» The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council should establish requirements that firms the government could contract to dispose of fireworks be evaluated for their environmental and safety programs, safety record and incident history, ability to use safe methods in disposing of hazardous materials, and training and qualifications of personnel involved in the work.

» Contracts for companies dealing with the storage, handling and disposal of fireworks and other explosive hazardous materials must meet the same provisions as those in the Department of Defense’s Contractor’s Safety Manual for Ammunition and Explosives.

The board, in its findings, said that apart from a lack of national standards for the disposal of fireworks and the government contracts that contained "inadequate safety requirements," the contractor at Waikele used "extremely unsafe" procedures to dispose of the contraband.

Killed in the April 8, 2011, explosion were Bryan Dean Cabalce, Robert Freeman, Justin Joseph Keli‘i, Robert Leahey and Neil Sprankle. A sixth man, described as the project supervisor, was making a phone call outside the cave and survived the explosion.

The men were dismantling illegal fireworks, seized by federal agents on three occasions, in a Waikele storage cave. The caves are bunkers that were constructed by the military during World War II and later converted for public use by a commercial storage company. The men initially were working outside, but moved indoors when it began to rain.

The explosion hurled debris 150 feet from the entrance of the bunker.

Families of the victims have sued various companies involved with the operation, alleging that they were negligent or reckless in allowing work to be done in an unsafe manner. Donaldson Enterprises is not named in the lawsuit because state workers’ compensation law bars employees from suing their employers for work-related injury and death.

The report said that after a fireworks display show in Lansing, Kan., on July 4, 2012, a volunteer was killed when he and other volunteers were disposing of fireworks that had not discharged during the show. A 3-inch-diameter aerial shell was "thrown into a burning pit" and "burst near the volunteer," the report said.