Editorial: Do more against illegal fireworks

Laws are only as good as the willingness to observe and enforce them, and it seems Honolulu is lacking the will or ability to do either well at all, where fireworks are concerned.

Nobody watching the New Year’s Eve celebrations Thursday night into Friday morning would ever guess that aerial pyrotechnics were illegal for residential use on Oahu, and had been since 2010.

Since then, the loud and fiery bursts have become a common part of the holiday season scene, seemingly increasing each year statewide, fostering random explosions that begin weeks in advance of the holiday.

Hawaii island residents can set off aerials with a permit, but elsewhere in this state, they’re supposed to remain the turf of the professional technicians.

This year the fear was that blustery weather would lead to brush fires from the explosions, but the actual consequence was even more tragic: a fatality on Kauai. A Kapaa man, Dexter Ibaan, 34, died from injuries he suffered in a fireworks explosion.

And there were multiple injuries, to adults and children. A 7-year-old girl was hurt seriously from an explosion; a boy, 11, suffered an eye injury, a 12-year-old Maui boy lost parts of his fingers.

The fact that these lapses cause such pain to children makes the lax efforts by the adults seem especially negligent.

Every year, law enforcement does make some move to rein in the contraband that finds its way into the marketplace. On Thursday, Honolulu Police Department announced on Twitter that officers had confiscated 1,500 pounds of fireworks Dec. 1-30.

There were no details, but based on what everyone witnessed overnight, HPD had barely scratched the surface.

Among the problems in enforcement is that consumer aerial fireworks are not illegal throughout the state, and so once allowed to enter the Big Island, for instance, can find their way among the islands.

Further, firecrackers are legal statewide with proper permits, so shipments of legal cargo can provide an easy means for concealing illicit items as well.

Before leaving her City Council seat, Kymberly Pine reminded constituents that she believes the solution lies in better port security.

“While a few people are setting off homemade ‘bombs,’ most of the illegal fireworks that shatter our peace and quiet are coming into our state through our ports,” Pine said in a written statement issued on Wednesday.

In February, Pine’s Resolution 20-16 was adopted by the Council, a measure urging the state Legislature to seek an audit of harbor inspection procedures, which falls under state jurisdiction.

Unfortunately, that didn’t move the lawmakers to take any action, even though this is clearly an issue that requires a statewide solution to be applied.

Of the 34 fireworks-regulation measures introduced during the 2020 session, the one that got the farthest died in the House Judiciary Committee. And that would have merely formed a working group to study a detection technology aimed at illegal firearms and fireworks.

Bills to restrict consumer fireworks on a statewide basis went nowhere, as did various attempts to beef up the inspection process.

For a public-safety concern that is on display throughout the islands every year, this is pretty weak tea.

Perhaps that signals a deeper problem: Public officials are not feeling enough pressure to weed out the contraband at its source and are responding instead to a popular insistence that fireworks are too intrinsically part of island culture to root out.

But try to explain that to the families of those hurt in the weekend mayhem. They, too, have loved the fiery celebration but are now realizing, sadly, that the price they’ve paid is too high.