3 women dead, over 2 dozen people wounded in Honolulu fireworks explosion
Three women were killed and about two dozen people were injured at an Honolulu home when a “cake bomb” filled with illegal aerial fireworks set off massive explosions at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at a large New Year’s Eve party.
Three women were killed and about two dozen people were injured at an Honolulu home when a “cake bomb” filled with illegal aerial fireworks set off massive explosions at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at a large New Year’s Eve party.
At an afternoon news conference at the Honolulu Police Department’s headquarters, Gov. Josh Green, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and leaders of city agencies repeatedly used words like “horrific,” “gruesome,” and “a war zone” to describe the chaotic “mass casualty” event that first responders found when they arrived 4137 Keaka Drive in Aliamanu just after midnight.
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“It was a bomb. It was a fireworks bomb. It was a bomb that exploded,” Green said.
He said a person lit a “cake bomb,” which contained multiple aerials, that tipped over and fired the explosives into the home’s carport, igniting a huge cache of other fireworks.
Two women were dead at the scene while a third in her early 20s died later at a hospital, officials said.
Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said 23 adults and three children critical or serious injuries.
Dr. Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, said the transported patients were “mostly critical” and taken to hospitals across Oahu, while an unknown number of other less-severely injured people self-transported to the hospital.
Green said he expected that there will be one or two children under the age of 10 who will be permanently disfigured or die from their injuries. He later described two children, ages 1 and 3, who were severely injured.
A total of 13 city and federal ambulances made 14 trips to hospitals as first responders set up a triage area to prioritize the most seriously injured, Ireland said. The triage area had to be set up several houses away from the home because the street was so clogged with cars that first responders had a hard time accessing the blast site, he said.
“I’m very proud of our team” for its life-saving response under difficult circumstances but “it’s a very sad day for me. … This didn’t have to happen. … I never want to see this again,” Green said.
Honolulu Fire Department Chief Kalani Hao said one woman who was found dead at the scene was in the driveway of the home, and the other was on the street.
“It really looked like a war zone and like a bomb dropped right in front of that house,” he said.
Logan said, “Very bad, poor decision-making” by members of our community caused this tragedy. “This is a systemic problem that is cultural,” and police enforcement alone cannot solve it, he said.
He also said police recovered “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of illegal fireworks from the home.
No arrests have been made, and HPD and HFD are investigating the incident.
“ATF did assist HPD this morning. We are standing by to support again if requested,” Jason Chudy, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms &Explosives, Seattle Field Division, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Both Blangiardi and Green expressed frustration about the prevalence of illegal aerial fireworks in Hawaii, and the determination to make major changes to curb their use.
“Enough is enough. This situation is out of control,” Blangiardi said, adding, “This is horrific. This needs to be a seminal moment” for the community to finally deter the use of illegal aerial fireworks.
Green echoed the sentiment.
The governor, a medical doctor, emphasized that injuries were gruesome and extensive, with organic (brain) matter splattered on car and house windows across the street from the blast.
He said the public needs to understand how gruesome this event was so that changes can be made to cut the use of illegal fireworks in Hawaii.
People were still shooting off aerials four houses down as the medics were driving by to save lives, Green said.
“I hope people wake up. … This is clearly a threat. … This is a threat to public safety and health.”
Green asked people with remaining fireworks from New Year’s to “please pause” and not set them off in the coming days. He also said the state will have an amnesty program for people to drop off illegal fireworks.
The governor said he will be working with the state Legislature to address curbing illegal fireworks in Hawaii. Penalties are going to have to become “very, very severe” to deter the use of illegal aerial fireworks, he said, calling for possession of over 50-pounds of illegal fireworks to be elevated to a Class C felony with a 5-year prison term and a $10,000 fine.
In addition to the three deaths at Aliamanu, a fourth person died from fireworks-related injuries in Kalihi overnight. HPD said at 11:05 p.m., officers and EMS responded to a 20-year-old man with critical fireworks-related injuries. He was treated and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 12:30 a.m.