The Big Island’s police chief hopes that the seizure of at least 75 tons of fireworks in Honolulu by the Illegal Fireworks Task Force over the past year will make for a somewhat quieter New Year’s Eve.
“The container-sized shipments that were seized in Honolulu, hopefully, are going to help to limit supply downstream,” Hawaii Police Department Chief Ben Moszkowicz said Monday. “But at the same time, all you have to do is live anywhere on the Big Island and after dark, recently, there’s already fireworks that are going off here and there.
“The underlying problem with the aerial fireworks are that they’re inherently dangerous. People lose limbs, they lose lives — and they pay a lot of money for these aerial fireworks that are not only illegal, but very dangerous.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a quieter New Year’s Eve.”
During this year’s legislative session, Gov. Josh Green signed into law House Bill 2193. The new statute authorizes law enforcement and fire officers to enter and inspect any licensee’s or permittee’s premises, under certain conditions, and confiscate illegal fireworks. It also requires licensees to keep accurate records and to report any theft of fireworks or missing fireworks.
“We’re not messing around anymore,” Green said in July. “With the combination of very dry land, with climate change plus what we’ve experienced (with the Maui wildfires), I hope everyone will now work with law enforcement to not use these illegal aerials.”
In addition to the possibility of injuries, deaths or fires from aerial fireworks that are improperly detonated, the noise and smoke generated by the pyrotechnics have generated complaints from senior citizens, people with asthma and other breathing problems, as well as military veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Children, pets and livestock also can be traumatized by the noise.
Deb Lewis, a retired U.S. Army colonel who was deployed in 2006-2007 to Iraq with the Army Corps of Engineers and is the former Veterans of Foreign Wars state commander, noted fireworks often “sounds like artillery.”
“It’s not just the fireworks that are being set off on New Year’s Eve. It’s worse than that,” Lewis said. “People are setting them off all the time, and these unexpected booms happen during the day. And it makes my heart stop every time because I have been in a war zone, and we have so much killing happening around the world.”
Moszkowicz said firecrackers that can be legally bought with a permit are less of a concern than “commercial-grade fireworks that are illegal not only to possess, but also to transport.”
“And how do those things get here? They can either come in a container on a ship, mostly from Asia, and almost all that stuff floats through Honolulu … or they’re transported through UPS, FedEx or the mail, and they’ll get here on airplanes,” he said. “So, people are packaging up commercial-grade fireworks, putting them in the mail — and that mail flies along with you and me from the West Coast to Hawaii. So, it’s incredibly dangerous. And, hopefully, no one is injured, God forbid, killed.
“But it seems such a huge price to pay for such a small benefit.”
And although tons of commercial-grade fireworks have been confiscated, mostly aboard ships in Honolulu Harbor, it’s rare that arrests are made for illegal fireworks activity. However, a Hilo man, 44-year-old Shaun Legaspi, also known as Shaun Kahaunaele, was arrested Oct. 1 for possessing about 12 pounds of various aerial devices plus display fireworks, price lists and a ledger showing thousands of dollars in illegal firework sales.
Legaspi was charged with a selling fireworks without a license or permit, a Class C felony carrying a potential five-year prison sentence upon conviction, plus possessing fireworks without a license or permit, a misdemeanor.
Legaspi has a court date of Feb. 18 for “further proceedings” before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto.
“People build up stockpiles of this stuff at their houses. Which, again, in terms of safety, if you’re living next to someone in a single-wall-construction house who has 2,000 pounds of commercial-grade explosives, it’s crazy,” Moszkowicz said.
Lewis said there is fallout, literally, even from fireworks allowed by law and detonated during the permitted times.
“The whole valley in Hilo Bay gets covered in smoke,” she said. “And then, I go ride my bike, and I see where they’ve lit off the fireworks all along the street. And now you’ve got litter, debris, and it affects everybody. I mean, it’s one thing to have a controlled fireworks presentation, which I love … but the risk is managed. When you have individuals doing it, there’s far greater risk of harm.”
Lewis said the continued demand for and use of illegal fireworks despite it being against the law is “a complex issue.”
“I’m not saying it’s everybody, but it is often people who just don’t care about the rules, whether it’s driving or setting off fireworks. Because the rules are clear. The issue is enforcing them,” Lewis said.
“Where there’s an inability to enforce the rules, from what I’ve seen, it’s the neighbors. It’s not the government; it’s not the police. It’s everybody working together. … But it takes courage, it takes persistence and it takes documentation … because pretty much the police are hamstrung unless they see them in the act. So, we as a community have to make it somehow easier to enforce.”
Moszkowicz concurred that a shift in overall community attitudes toward fireworks would have to occur to facilitate more enforcement of illegal pyrotechnics.
“We can make all the laws in the world to make it illegal, but if there’s still a cultural desire, we can’t go around and arrest our way out of this problem. It’s something the community’s going to have to decide they’re either for or against and give us the tools to help us protect them.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
