Officials with both the Police and Fire departments urged members of the City Council Public Safety Committee to reject a bill that would allow Oahu residents to once again set off sparklers and other novelty fireworks legally, warning that expanding what’s available to the public for New Year’s and Independence Day celebrations could lead to more injuries.
The committee deferred the bill Tuesday, but only to fix technical flaws in the bill’s language. Public Safety Chairwoman Carol Fukunaga said she expects Bill 5 to return to her committee next month.
The bill would allow consumers to purchase up to 160 sparklers or other novelty fireworks with a $25 permit issued by the city, the same permit that now allows them to buy up to 5,000 firecrackers. As is now the case, there would be no limit on the number of permits a person 18 or older could purchase.
Assistant Fire Chief Socrates Bratakos said that since the current law banning everything but firecrackers went into effect in 2012, the department has been responding to a yearly average of about eight fireworks incidents and 18 injuries during the three days surrounding New Year’s Day.
From 2002 to 2010, when sparklers and other novelty fireworks could be purchased without permits, the department responded to an average of 39 fireworks incidents and 73 injuries annually at New Year’s.
Bratakos said national statistics show sparklers and fountains cause more injuries than firecrackers.
Honolulu police Maj. Kerry Inouye, who heads the Ewa-Waianae district, said HPD shares the Fire Department’s concerns.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson, one of the bill’s authors, said making some sparklers and novelty fireworks available would discourage the public from choosing the much more dangerous option of creating their own explosive devices to set off on New Year’s Eve and July Fourth.
The bill would also allow those who purchase permits from the city for a New Year’s or Fourth of July celebration to get a refund within 30 days if they don’t use them to buy fireworks.
Bratakos said about 1,600 of roughly 11,000 permits issued went unused during the last New Year’s celebration. Disgruntled permit holders said the demand was greater than the stock sold by vendors.
