Emergency crews arrived at a chaotic and horrific scene in a Honolulu suburb after a large New Year’s fireworks display toppled over and ignited a fiery shrapnel-filled explosion, killing three people and injuring more than 20 others, many of them seriously.
Two women died at the scene and a third woman in a hospital, authorities said Wednesday as they urged people to stop the New Year’s tradition of setting off fireworks across the city. Officials ordered tougher penalties for illegal fireworks.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green graphically described the deaths at a news conference Wednesday to emphasize the potential danger of fireworks. “We’re talking about the worst war zone injuries that took their lives.”
Children were among more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and shrapnel wounds, including those who died, officials said, who have not yet been publicly identified.
Police were investigating whether charges against the person who set off the fireworks near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan said.
The explosion occurred in a three-story house with a carport on the ground floor. Piles of blackened debris including mortar rounds from fireworks could be seen in front of the house in broad daylight on Wednesday.
The explosion shattered windows on the street. It happened when a batch of aerial mortar-like fireworks called “cakes” tipped or fell off a table and shot sideways into boxes containing extra fireworks, which then exploded.
The rounds of the cake could be separated, but it was lit as a batch of 50, a fraction of what officials said were tens of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks at home.
Ambulance crews arrived but had to triage (separate and treat the most seriously injured victims first) several houses away because of parked cars and crowds on the street, said Dr. Jim Ireland, director of Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Services.
Some people in the area continued to set off fireworks while blast victims were taken to hospitals, officials said.
The neighborhood is adjacent to Honolulu International Airport and a joint US Air Force and Navy base and more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the USS Arizona Memorial, which honors the sailors killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the US to the area. Second World War
“I’ve been in EMS for over 30 years and this is probably one of the worst calls I’ve ever been on in terms of the sheer tragedy and the number of patients and the severity of the injuries,” Ireland said at an earlier press conference.
A fourth person was killed in another fireworks explosion elsewhere on Oahu, officials said. At least four others were seriously injured in unrelated firework accidents overnight.
Social media posts overnight showed fireworks going off across large areas of Honolulu, although sparklers, fountains and aerial fireworks are illegal and a permit is required to set off firecrackers, according to the Honolulu Fire Department.
“We are angry, disappointed and deeply saddened by this needless loss of life and suffering. It’s a tragic way to start the new year”, said Mayor Rick Blangiardi. “No one should have to suffer such pain as a result of such a reckless and illegal activity.”
Green said he was looking into whether new penalties for possessing large fireworks are needed to curb fireworks in Hawaii.
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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. John Hanna contributed to this report from Topeka, Kansas.
