HONOLULU (KHON2) — The state of Hawaii is still in shock over the tragic beginning of the new year, in which dozens of people were injured and at least 3 people were killed in a fireworks explosion in Aliamanu, while another man was killed in Kalihi.
Governor Josh Green says that people need to take a pause in using illegal fireworks and is offering amnesty for people who turn them in.
“I would just ask everyone humbly, please pause on shooting any of these fireworks off until the firefighters get a better grip on how they can contain the risk,” Green said. “Please make sure you take us up on our offer to go through amnesty programs. We’ll take them back and take them off people’s hands even if they got them illegally. That’s okay. We’ll probably do that on January 11th.”
Lawmakers are currently pondering what can be done to help stem the saturation of illegal explosives in Oahu’s neighborhoods. Many of them have come to the conclusion that public behavior will have to change.
“At the end of the day, it’s gonna have to be a personal decision that members of the community will have to decide,” Green said. “We’ll only do these kind of, large firework shows in public places with supervision and support from experts, from pyrotechnic specialists, from firefighters.”
State Senator Glenn Wakai is a proponent of civil penalties including seizure of property for those found guilty, while former Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Megan Kau is advocating for possession to be a felony.
As far as protecting entrance points for possible shipments of illegal fireworks, Governor Green points to common sense and new tools.
“We have to do what we can with some technology so that there’s not as much import of these, fireworks. A lot of times also, people put the illegal fireworks in with the legal fireworks, and so it’s very hard.”
State House Public Safety Chair Della Au Belatti says the ports are where a lot of things are coming in, from invasive species to illegal drugs, and fireworks.
“We have to get better and smarter with how we are handling this and be accountable, hold ourselves accountable. Look, the task force seized hundreds of thousands of pounds of fireworks last year. So we need to keep doing that, but then we need to pursue the prosecutions,” she said. And that’s a very important part, and that’s where the conversations perhaps with the federal government, with, our our city resources, with the with the prosecutor’s office, how can we make sure that we can hold people accountable?”
The legislative session begins January 15th.