1 dead, 1 injured in fireworks-related incident in Kapolei
A 38-year-old woman died this morning from injuries she suffered in a fireworks incident in Kapolei.
The Honolulu Fire Department said it received a medical emergency call at a Komohana Street address at 12:08 a.m. When firefighters arrived they found a man and a woman with apparent blast injuries and that bystanders were performing CPR on the woman.
City Emergency Medical Services officials say they transported a 36-year-old man to a trauma hospital and a 38-year-old woman to an area hospital. Both were in critical condition.
Honolulu police say the woman died shortly after 1 a.m.
Police said they are investigating the case for the possible use of prohibited explosive devices. Police said no arrests or citations had been issued as of this afternoon.
92 responses to “1 dead, 1 injured in fireworks-related incident in Kapolei”
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I can still smell the smoke today.
Ban these murderous devices. No other state allows this kind of mayhem that goes on year after year.
Nonsense.
Nonsense is right. As long as only those playing are the ones who get hurt, I’m cool with that. No innocent bystanders.
amela: you are heartless.
Nonsense. Utah allows people to use fireworks July 1 – July 7 for Independence Day,
July 21 – July 27 for Pioneer Day and on Dec. 31st. But, I agree, fireworks should be banned.
Condolences to their families.
Not a good comparison, Utah does not have anywhere near the level and mayhem with fireworks nor condones illegal fireworks like Hawaii does.
You don’t like it….LEAVE!
I’m sure it’s your ethic custom to set off fireworks. Of course in a 3rd world smoke inhalation and causing a nuisance to the community is not a consideration.
Guess they went for the Big Bang huh?
You determined his/her ethnicity (or is it “ethicity”?) and community outlook from just five words? You’re either some kind of psychic, or a mainland transplant who considers Hawaii to be in the third world and populated by inconsiderate natives… I.e.: Perhaps not a good place in which to stick around.
amela: another foolish insensitive comment from you. you’re on a roll and it’s only day 1. you will reap what you sow.
No bradda…for those who break the law and disturb and disrespect their neighbors and pets…you leave. We just need to to get the govt. serious about enforcement.
Dtpro, when I lived in Utah they faced the same firewoks problems as Hawai’i. Legal fireworks are sold and illegal aerial fireworks are brought in from Moapa or Wyoming. They have their share of housefires…bushfires…nasty smoke.. in the second driest state in the union. All in the name of making money.
No.
Now what?
allie,
There are already laws preventing the importation, sale, possession, and use of illegal aerial fireworks. Sure, the legislature could pass a law with real teeth, something akin to a $20,000 fine per violation, but guess who’s job it will be to enforce it? That’s right, the same HPD that’s been charged with doing so for decades.
I don’t presume to guess how many street cops you mingle with, but the ones I’ve broached this subject with either (1) look forward to lighting off illegal aerials themselves, or (2) are sympathetic to those who do, or (3) are completely indifferent on the issue, or (4) would rather be doing something else around New Year’s Eve than prowling residential neighborhoods looking for violators.
I don’t believe HPD has released figures yet concerning the number of fireworks scofflaws they nabbed and cited this year, but if you prefer to dismiss the attitudes mentioned in the above paragraph as less than half true, then how do you explain the remarkably low citation numbers of previous years? After all, in some streets on this island, simply walking down in plain clothes could net you a dozen violators per quarter mile stretch.
Face it, no cop looks forward to pooping on people having what passes for them to be a good time.
Not to mention that lots of them sold it from the trunks of their private patrol cars. They would get it from their longshoremen friends, take orders before New Years. When I was rookie saw it all the time, thought it was harmless at the time.
uh, they are banned
Been banned for some time now and still people bringing them into the state. So easy to bring in illegal drugs when they can’t detect illegal fireworks.
In lots of southern states they sell them all year, and you can use them any time.
Home made bomb?……
What a tragedy, and such a sad way to start the new year for their families.
We did some stupid & reckless stuff with fireworks when we were kids, and learned never to do anything similar as we grew up. These were adults; what an awful way to pass along a lesson.
I don’t like to wish poorly on people, but they did something illegal so they got what they deserve. (no more than I feel sorry for a burglar be sot by the homeowner) who gets shop)..don’t like it, do illegal things…I do not feel sorry for them at all.
There too many illegal fireworks…they should pass a law so that whistle-blowers get 25% of the fine and the police union get another 25% to catch and apprehend these criminals…then maybe we can get these illegal and dangerous bombs.
The people who use the illegals could give a rat’s hat about anyone else’s safety. It’s not as if any of them would step up and say “Yes, it was my illegal aerial that burned that lady’s house down, and I take full responsibility for their loss.”
I’m just saying that the law was passed for safety and property…those who violate those laws “roll the dice and accept the consequences” and I for one will not feel bad about it. Although I do feel sorry for the family who may have not had a part of their loved ones illegal act…maybe they will be a voice to help the enforcement against illegal fireworks.
The people who died/injured knew it was dangerous and illegal when they bought it (and it wasn’t a small firecracker) – these aerials have been illegal for some time)…up to several days later when they lit the fuse…very likely it wasn’t their first fuse they lit…so it wasn’t a brief moment of insanity, it was pre-meditative.
I’m tired of seeing people violating laws and getting away with it…I’m tired of people ridding in the zipper and HOV lane with only 1 person…”ticket their rear end!”
Good and law abiding citizens always get the sort end…we’re supposed to say “we’re the better people” and “will be rewarded at the end”…it’s about time people start paying for illegal acts (within reason as some laws make no sense) and pay NOW instead of “at the end”.
About 20 years ago, my wife’s cousin’s neighbor’s home was destroyed by aerial fireworks. And every year, my wife’s cousin would spend $10,000 on fireworks.
How mind boggling is that? What else could that $10,000 be used for instead of going up in smoke? Nice upgrades to the home or a nice luxury vacation? You could go to Vegas and bet it and it would at least give you a chance to win more money. What a waste.
He’s probably buying & selling illegal fireworks.
A friend of mine spends $20k for a night of fire works, agree though, that is crazy…
I would bring my $50 worth of fireworks to play with. Then I realized they had plenty, and not too much food. So I’d bring over baked ham, Peking duck, noodles or whatever. FWIW, it was Uncle’s house; it needed tons of work, but no one cared. There was always a mass of adult kids and grandkids living there. Wall-to-wall bodies on the carpet and bedrooms. I could barely stand visiting. It was a toxic house, not a home. When Uncle and Auntie died, the son turned into a crack house. Godawful smelling. The kitchen sink and stove were relocated outside. Horrific. The house recently sold and the cockroaches either died or scattered elsewhere. BTW, go to Vegas and bet? Now that’s a foolish “investment”! Uncle and Auntie both worked hard. They did have his hefty pension, their investment home, his huge Social Security check, her SS check and a shoebox full of savings bonds when he died. Uncle and Auntie did well; they just couldn’t get rid of their “cockroach kids”. Family meant everything, to the detriment of his own home. The “roaches” were also living in his investment home. smh. For me, my kids left home voluntarily, but visit often. My wife and I and the two Chihuahuas have the whole house to ourselves. Life is good. Our investments are doing well.
Obama’s was pumping last night according to some friends who live that side.
he gets the best illegals on the island.
FAKE NEWS….a lie….I live in the neighborhood..there were NO fireworks there.
Correct. New Year’s Eve is quiet in that neighborhood. To the East in Waimanalo and to the West in Kaneohe/Kahaluu, different story because a different kind of people are in those neighborhoods.
They don’t care. Wouldn’t know the the truth if it bit them in the hindquarters.
Yup, Trump supporters just can’t help themselves.
No need to go to Waikiki to see the aerials……we sat on our friends lanai in Hauula and marveled at the hundreds of $ that went up in smoke……..and the Police just kept driving by,…oblivious to the action.
remember…..the best is yet to come!
38 year old woman still ‘playing’ with fireworks, probably the illegal dangerous kind? Darwinian forces start off the new year. As other pointed out, don’t want to sound cold, but there is so much illegal, high power fireworks being smuggled, sold and used in Hawaii, this fireworks related death in Hawaii is NO surprise. How come almost all illegal fireworks are not caught at the docks? They come in large shipments and can be detected by dogs or other means. I don’t wonder anymore how criminals are able to smugle in and out of Hawaii so much illegal firearms and drugs.
KHON2 said they were lighting an illegal aerial for a gathering at Campbell Industrial Park when it exploded.
true..it is a real mess and no enforcement of the weak laws
The real travesty is how stupid this law is. Like I said earlier, Hawaii got it totally backwards. We ban any and all consumer grade aerials, but allow very small amounts of firecrackers. In most states that allow fireworks, firecrackers are specifically prohibited. I can see why. I was here when firecrackers were not restricted. The smoke and trash from each house burning hundreds of pounds of firecrackers was ridiculous. Unenforceable prohibitions do not make sense. People are going to do what they want to do, only logical thing in that case is to minimize potential harm caused by that choice. A professional grade display shell has no business in the hands of an amateur, but poorly thought out prohibitions serve very well to put such things in the wrong hands. When something is readily available on the black market, it is available to all with no oversight.
Cargo arriving from the Continental US is not subject to the same kind of inspection that cargo from foreign countries are. In case you did not know, a number of states in the Continent allow consumer grade fireworks. Problem is that consumer grade fireworks are sold side by side with the professional grade stuff on the black market with no oversight by a responsible party. Death by fireworks? Sure. That is similar to what happened when a prohibition on alcohol was enacted. The bottle of Gin you bought from under the counter was turpentine and methyl alcohol in many cases. A lot of people died from drinking poisons that looked like drinkable alcohol but were not.
A death caused by illegal fireworks or not is still a death! Condolences to the family. The heart and soul can’t distinguish death by its legality or otherwise. It mourns for the losses and grief for the person who was loved. Have a heart and stop your unnecessary criticism. It’s a new year don’t start with animosity within yourself. The only person you destroy would be the best or goodness in you!
I totally agree. Dunno why some think that because it was an illegal activity, they deserved the consequences.
Why not?
My answer is if you do not know why, then no sense even trying to explain the answer to you because you will never understand nor accept it.
Do lives of stupid people matter?
Mahalo for your good words.
Wizard, I missed the “Amen” at the end of your sermon.
SueH, some appreciate Wizard’s sentiments as showing “aloha”, that is, those of us who have even an ounce of compassion.
Well, I’m sure nobody missed the finger after yours. And, I’m sure it appreciates you displaying it with such pride.
Wizard: Unless that illegal aerial actually went off and maybe landed on your home and burned it down to the ground, or maybe it went crazy instead and shot across the street and hit your daughter in the face, killing her….right? Then what happens to your preaching about goodness?
As long as they hurt only themselves, so be it. Same with drug use. Just stay away from me and my family and we’ll be just fine.
Here here.
As someone who has to clean up the debris left by illegal aerials on MY property every year, just how do you ensure people can keep their own fireworks – and the smoke, noise and damage they may cause – on or within their own property lines? May as well tell that guy in lower Kalihi to quit firing his 7.62mm tracer bullets into the night sky. Yes, let’s go knock on his door and politely request that he stop and desist.
Would be interesting to learn what really happened. I wonder if someone else lit the fireworks and it tipped over and shot her.
Good point. Reporting by the SA is always vague. Very very few times they get the real story. Hardly any investigation made. Thus the comments stated are made with no hard evidence and maybe that is what the SA wants.
Anyway their reporting and journalism is getting worse. Wonder why the sales of print media has declined. Talking to someone from another city this past week and funny they mentioned they had a morning and an evening paper, which got bought and merged by the one in business today. Same thing happened to us in Hawaii. His comment was since the day their city had only one paper the reporting and journalism sucks.
Maybe it didn’t happen, why get worked up about it till all the facts are in. Maybe SA did it intentionally for the news.
But yet here you are every day commenting on articles.
But yet here you are everyday with your infantile comments.
The SA can only report what they are told, which is usually very little.
Your collection of information is as bad. I do not comment everyday. I do read the only newspaper in town. If they had another one I would not read this one because any new news media will have better reporting. Why do you think the subscription cost is so low.
They even call me to subscribe and I have to tell them why should I go with the new offer when I am paying less now. I even told them stop calling me on new promotions. They don’t get the message right and call again.
klastri, do you work for the paper. It appears I pushed a button.
Reminds me at the start of the ’90s we were playing fireworks in a park and I had just lit the fuse on a news transmitter when a cop drove into the parking lot. I was so startled that I knocked it over and it started shooting straight at the cop car. Wee! Wee! Weeee!! Man, did we ever book in the other direction. The cop just sat there and kept his windows up — having a good laugh at us, no doubt.
Not a fan of illegal fireworks, but I think some who say they deserved to die and be critically injured are going way overboard! Prayers for them and their loved ones…
Agree. See post from the Wizard.
Guess she blew herself the frix-up.
The total lack of aloha is showing again by those dark hearted posters who have a total lack of empathy for the family and friends of the deceased and injured.
Condolences to all affected by this sad New Years event, including ohana, and first responders who needed to bring in their New Year by working a tragic accident.
What about the “lack of Aloha” shown by all those using illegal fireworks?
The “aloha” is shown towards the family and friends. (But it takes some aloha within a person to realize that, which sadly for them, not all posters have.)
I’m sure all those expressing their aloha would not be as compassionate if someone they knew was hurt or killed by this incident.
Primo, lecturing or name calling of the deceased does not change or improve anything, their time for listening to earthly matters has passed. But what can be productive is showing compassion to those left to mourn.
So how’s that illegal aerial ban working out? Must have been that deadly sparklers that killed that woman.
With all the explosions and sirens going on all day yesterday… I was surprised it didn’t happen on the windward side.
What a waste for the thrill of some fireworks……if anything age teaches you something…….
Not in this case however.
They knew the risks. It is sad when this kind of thing happens and costs a life but they knew the risks.
Need better, stronger laws that make it easier for HPD to cite and way better enforcement by HPD. Every year they tag less than 1% of the number of call in’s. They need to be citing 40% or higher of the call in’s to have a deterrent.
I’m pretty confident that these illegal aerials/bombs are not being manufactured on Oahu. So, my real question is what (if anything) is law enforcement doing to prevent them from being imported into the island. And, if illegal Fire Works are being imported without any deterrents or consequences, what other illegal things are being imported? The real issue here in my view is inadequate inspections and enforcement at the port of entry. How many people are being paid off to look the other way? It’s a very lucrative business that requires some real hard line law enforcement decisions to be made by local law enforcement agencies — or, if they are all looking the other way (lining their pockets) bring in the FEDS to enforce it.
Agreed, this explosion does open up awareness of laxness. It speaks to how lax the enforcement is of our current laws. It speaks to how lax the inspections are of incoming goods/products. It speaks to how lax some folks are towards helping to insure the safety of their neighbors.
[Cont],maybe we can use this accident to move forward with improving the laws, enforcement, and education and thus have an outcome that has a positive effect on Hawaii. Maybe this sad event will not be in vain, and can be used as a catalyst for change.
Here on north shore there were all types of concussions bombs going off as well as full automatic small arms fire, sounded like ak47. I did appreciate that all the meyhem stopped at midnight as my dog suffers ptsd from previous owners gun shot wound.
No fireworks period. Shame on law makers for easing use of fireworks. Enough already.
Play with fire suffer the consequences. Sad to learn the hard way.
For some that’s the only way. Even then some don’t learn. That’s when they reach the “end of the lesson.”
Such an unnecessary death. They need to go after the people bringing the illegal fireworks in. The area that they were trying to light these fireworks in is very scary. It’s an industrial area with a refinery right on that road! What if the fireworks had gotten into there, or the power plant a block away.
We have an unbelievable number of inconsiderate, stupid people living here with no aloha for their neighbors or common sense. If you live in the country, especially in rural areas with few people, have at it. The problem is, stupid people detonate high powered explosives in densely populated areas in urban Honolulu which result in injuries, death, and property damage. Of course, the police can’t stop illegal drugs or illegal immigration, so who would reasonably think they could make a dent in illegal fireworks?
They used to do a bit on Letterman’s late night show that could have used this incident. It was called “Stupid Human Tricks”.
The few ruin it for the many. People know it’s illegal and still do it. Like the people who dump a truck load of trash on the side of the road. No respect for nothing. I hope the StarAdvertiser post names of people arrested and how many arrested. Police should have a quota on how many arrest they make like how many tickets for speeding they need to hand out. How many people need to die before the police department gets serious with the arrest?????????
Seems like the police looks the other way as far as illegal fireworks. Okay, that’s very obvious. When fireworks are shooting in the sky, it’s not very hard to find these folks. It makes you wonder if there’s some sort of corruption going on … hmmm.
Politicians are asking to revise the current fireworks law to include non aerials as a way to cut down on illegal fireworks. Yes, our politicians are idiots. We all know the only way to curtail illegal fireworks is to get to the source. Where are they coming from? Who in this state is allowing illegal fireworks to get in? Seems to me the people on our docks have their hands in this dirty business. Talk for years is that illegals are shipped to the Big Island, then ferry over by private boats to various islands. Why are state and federal inspectors not working on the SOURCE of the problem instead of letting our inept politicians feebly try to fix any problem?
Hearts and prayers out to the families of this tragedy. .we’ve been lighting fireworks for centuries until the white people came and started complaining.there is responsible people and not so responsible ones..so if u don’t like what we do here then go back to america!! BOOOYA!!!
Now that is a troll posting if I ever saw one.