fireworks | Think About It Hawaii

Bombs Away – MidWeek January 28, 2026

admin MidWeek Column January 28, 2026January 12, 2026#johnfink, #midweek, #thinkaboutit, fireworks, john fink, law enforcement, midweek, midweek hawaii, think about it 0 Comment

Local law enforcement entities stepped it up this year to detect and deter illegal fireworks. More feet on the street, drones, and tougher laws all deterred scofflaws… to some degree. The state Department of Law Enforcement reportedly grabbed over 60 tons of illegal fireworks. That’s 120,000 pounds of stuff that didn’t make it into the air, kill or maim anybody. All good.

But the mere fact that that so much contraband was ready to go here means the New Year’s Eve big bang problem is far from being resolved. Law enforcement drone videos are being scrutinized to see where more charges might be made or warnings be sent.

Unfortunately, watching fireworks for some gawkers is like watching football. They know the harm that can occur, someone’s possibly going to get hurt (a guarantee in football), yet they just can’t seem to turn their eyes away. But football is legal.

Entrepreneurs realize that enforcement and focus are way up simply, so they seek new ways to import their goods, or bads. Some suggest greater scrutiny at our docks around December. But frantic fire-workers are savvy to that tactic and simply bring in illegal explosives earlier in the year, quietly storing them.

Perhaps county-coordinated efforts to provide legal events at controlled venues for people to watch (like the various July 4^th fireworks displays in town, on military bases, and off Kailua Beach) would ween wary watchers or even violators from engaging in the voyeurism and crimes playing out down the street. While not complicit, those witnessing illegal, community festivities on New Year’s Eve play a role as enablers rather than just naïve, innocent bystanders. “Oooh, that one was cool!”

HPD received almost 1,500 calls (anonymity rules), made over 120 arrests, and anecdotal evidence and hospital reports suggest it was a “quieter” night in most areas on 12/31/25. Weather might have been a factor, too.

The devastating fireworks tragedy of six people killed by illegal explosives a year ago did not occur in a vacuum. For decades, the outcry has been for tougher laws and more patrolling. We got that. But it’s tough to (sometimes) catch people in the act of blowing things up.

And there’s that vicarious thrill that precludes some people from anonymously reporting illegal aerials. There’s the “yeah, it sucks, it’s illegal… but it’s kinda cool” logic that helps this annual folly survive, some years more robustly than others.

Think about it…

Fireworks Fix? – MidWeek October 9, 2024

admin MidWeek Column October 10, 2024September 29, 2024#johnfink, #midweek, #thinkaboutit, fireworks, hawaii, john fink, midweek, midweek hawaii, think about it

Stunning, perhaps, but we now have a City Council proposal allowing for more incendiary devices to be available legally during permit periods around New Year’s Eve and July 4. Bill 22 will be decided upon soon by the full Council, but the idea that we should add more lit up devices- even seemingly benign fountains, sparklers, and poppers- to the obnoxious already existing aerials- legal and illegal- seems nonsensical and counterproductive.

Obviously, it’s been extremely difficult for law/fire officials to apprehend scofflaws who ply their handiwork (as long as their hand-ies aren’t blown off). Neighbors begrudgingly tolerate cul-de-sac celebrations, wary of complaining on their neighbors. Dogs cower. And law enforcement cannot be everywhere at once. Sometime they’re too busy and thus cannot be anywhere as the rockets glare red.

Encouraging more smoke, noise, street strewn garbage, potential injuries, neighborhood angst, and enhanced fire hazards is incomprehensible. A councilmember suggested that the current fireworks ban is not working. Well, neither is the speed limit in lots of places, so should we simply abandon speed signs or increase speed limits?

Another council member asked how to make it easier for HPD and HFD to go after illegal fireworks’ users. I’m guessing that having more “stuff” exploding and lit up won’t make policing any easier, as we’re all left to ponder what’s legal and illegal amid incessant smoke and noise.

State House Bill 2193 (now in force) allows law/fire officials more leeway to inspect legal permittee’s homes, to make sure there are no illegal devices among the legal cache. Perhaps we could offer $1,000 bounties for people to surreptitiously use their cell phones to report sonic booms and illuminating explosions in their immediate environs. They can then text the footage via a fireworks hotline, thus enhancing anonymous community patrols. The mere nagging suspicion among fireworks abusers that “someone” is watching/taping might curtail some of this semi-annual mess.

And please, enough with the false premise that usage of sky high, aerial devices is somehow a celebration or must-have for festive or religious reasons. If that’s the belief, OK, then simply restrict airborne exposure to specific religious sites and/or permitted, cordoned-off areas, not the current craziness where anything goes… anywhere.

Let’s snuff this suggested fireworks fiasco; there’s no justifiable rationale to add more obnoxious cacophony to simply appease amateur pyrotechnicians and opportunistic retailers. This idea is a dud that’ll make policing even more futile.

Think about it…