Editorial: Target dealers of illegal fireworks

This year’s New Year’s celebrations, with blazing pyrotechnics over many neighborhoods, were entertainment for many islanders. But they also blanketed communities in a haze of smoke, injured about a dozen people, including a 12-year-old girl, and resulted in one death on Oahu.

In Honolulu County, where all combustible fireworks aside from permitted firecrackers are banned, many islanders clearly feel completely comfortable with breaking the law. In fact, a corrections officer at Oahu Community Correctional Center was suspected of having three boxes of illegal aerials mailed to the facility from Las Vegas in an inmate’s name. The officer showed up at the OCCC postal center asking for the packages, which were said to be “Christmas presents” — but they had been turned over to the police.

In 2011, Oahu banned use of nonaerial fireworks and sparklers, after complaints of noise, fire hazard, injury and smoke-induced breathing problems had reached critical mass. In the first year or two, use of fireworks lessened noticeably, a good thing. But since then, use of illegal fireworks — specifically, aerials, and more recently, “bomb” explosives that sound like a deadly blast — has grown to the point that those worries have returned, and then some.

State law bans use of aerials throughout the islands. Deployed illegally, they can be exceedingly dangerous — posing the risk of life-changing disfigurement and even death, as seen this last New Year’s Eve. They can and do start fires, including destructive wildfires, and damage property. Yet the use of aerials is rising on Oahu, and that requires a renewed public response.

The Honolulu Police Department reports that police issued 17 citations and confiscated more than 300 pounds of illegal fireworks over the holidays; however, they received more than 2,400 fireworks-related calls. It’s simply not practical to expect the HPD to wade into neighborhoods to arrest fireworks users without increased resources.

It’s time for the state to step in, taking action to stop illegal fireworks from getting dispersed from the docks, and working with Honolulu County police to deter those who bring fireworks in by searching out distributors — fireworks “dealers” — and imposing penalties harsh enough to discourage the offense.

In recognition that something must change, more than two dozen bills pertaining to fireworks were introduced in Hawaii’s Legislature this session. Special attention should be paid to those that target the docks and dealers:

>> House Bill 216, HB 686 and HB 809 as well as Senate Bill 37 and SB 498 each call for shipping container inspection programs at Hawaii’s ports to detect illegal fireworks. HB 686 also calls for X-ray scanning technology. The Legislature must determine what agency should be responsible for inspections and also include allocations for the costs of this added responsibility, taking the best from each bill as needed.

>> HB 783, HB 889, HB 1041 and companion SB 1339 each creates an illegal-fireworks task force. In crafting a final bill, the Legislature must require a partnership among state, federal and local agencies, charged with creation of a strategic, targeted plan to go after fireworks distributors, combined with penalties that serve to deter imports.

>> SB 1481 delegates the responsibility to inspect warehouses, piers, cargo, baggage and even the personal effects of arriving ship passengers for illegal fireworks to fire departments.

>>SB 1611 requires the state Department of Transportation to work with the Department of Agriculture to add inspection for fireworks to its responsibilities, and requires installation of scanners at airports and commercial harbors to detect fireworks.