Pressure put on Hawaii lawmakers to stamp out illegal fireworks

Trying to combat illegal fireworks has been an annual tradition for Hawaii lawmakers in recent years as household use of contraband pyrotechnics causes pervasive harm.

Most bills trying to address the issue, however, turn out to be duds, and even ones that do become law have had little or limited effects.

At least four new Hawaii laws have been enacted in the past six years to reign in the distribution and use of illegal fireworks. Yet the general perception from many residents and government leaders is that the thunderous booms and aerial displays detonated in neighborhoods around the state mostly on New Year’s Eve have not declined.

This year, higher-than-­normal pressure is being put on state lawmakers to create stronger laws that materially reduce the supply and demand of illegal fireworks after an accidental explosion of a cache of illegal fireworks at an Aliamanu home killed at least three adults and injured more than two dozen, including young children who have been disfigured.

The Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner identified two of the three fatalities as Nelie Ibarra, 58, and Jennifer Van, 23. A separate New Year’s Eve fireworks-related incident in Kalihi claimed the life of Jayson Ramos, 20, who died of “blast injuries involving the head and right hand,” the medical examiner said.

Gov. Josh Green, during a New Year’s Day news conference addressing the tragedy, said proposed new laws to curtail use of illegal fireworks in Hawaii have previously encountered strong pushback partly stemming from cultural ties to setting off firecrackers and other much-less-powerful fireworks than what has been set off by residents since aerial fireworks other than professional, licensed displays were banned statewide in 2000.

“It’s gotten out of control,” said Green, whose resume includes working as an emergency room physician on the Big Island. “This is no longer us holding small fireworks and bottle rockets in Hilo.”

Green wants penalties for illegal fireworks to become severe enough to curtail existing widespread use, which in addition to physical injury and death has been the cause of property damage from fires, loss of pets and harm to people with respiratory ailments and post-traumatic stress disorders.

“Usually it takes something tragic like this to get the entirety of society moved to a place like enough is enough,” he said of the explosion that resulted in mass casualties.

Still, much doubt exists whether new laws can have a meaningful effect on what some view as an intractable problem that has only become worse after two legislative studies since 2011 included recommendations that have not been implemented.

Aerial fireworks not part of professional, licensed displays have been illegal statewide for 25 years, and since then recurring pleas have been made by elected leaders to effectively enforce the ban.

In January 2001, less than a year after the ban took effect, making possession of more than 25 pounds of illegal aerials a class C felony, then-Gov. Ben Cayetano publicly called for prosecutions of violators to deter lawbreakers after 81-year-old Lillian Herring died with her two dogs in a fire that burned down her house in Palolo Valley on Dec. 31, 2000.

A suspected aerial firework fired from elsewhere was believed to be responsible.

“If it’s illegal, then you just need to enforce the law,” Cayetano told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin at the time. “Even if you probably can’t apprehend and arrest everyone who commits a violation, you set a few examples by going after people. I think this year there’s going to be a person who will be the first charged with a new law which imposes a felony offense.”

Despite the death of Herring and others since then in fireworks-related incidents, no significant deterrent has been established despite many years of trying.

Task force No. 1

In 2010, the Legislature created a task force made up of federal, state and county government officials along with private industry representatives to develop and recommend strategies that lawmakers could implement to better combat importation and use of illegal fireworks.

Challenges noted in the task force’s 2011 report included police departments lacking enough resources to crack down on fireworks violations amid more serious crimes, and difficulties prosecuting illegal fireworks cases in part due to having to prove someone actually possessed fireworks, because “evidence that fireworks were merely in the vicinity of the suspect or the suspect’s residence is not sufficient in a criminal prosecution.”

One recommendation in the report was to decriminalize fireworks offenses in favor of civil fines because the burden of proof for prosecuting a civil offense would be lower.

The report also recommended increasing fines, which under Hawaii’s fireworks control law at the time generally ranged from $500 to $2,000.

Examples of what the report described as effective deterrents included penalties tied to federal hazardous materials ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 per violation.

Currently, the maximum penalty for having more than 25 pounds of illegal fireworks in Hawaii, a class C felony, is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. It’s a misdemeanor for lesser amounts and a penalty up to $5,000.

The 2011 report also recommended increasing inspections to intercept imported illegal fireworks.

A 2019 review and update of the report by the Legislative Reference Bureau said few if any recommendations in the original report were adopted despite consideration of multiple proposed bills.

New laws enacted

Since 2019, at least four bills aimed at combating illegal fireworks have become law. One was enacted in 2019 by then-Gov. David Ige as Act 248, which lowered the probable cause threshold for an arrest to include statements from people who witness violations even though they are not law enforcement officers, as well as photos or videos showing the commission of the offense if authenticated by at least one witness.

The 2019 law also allowed drone video without witness authentication as probable cause for arrest, and made homeowners or renters responsible for use of illegal fireworks on their premises.

Yet according to the 2019 report titled “Blast from the Past,” the Honolulu Police Department expressed concern that drone footage wouldn’t be admissible in court, while a bigger issue was that most fireworks prosecution cases were being dismissed.

In 2022, the Legislature passed a bill that became Act 104 and increased the maximum penalty for having less than 25 pounds of illegal fireworks, which is a misdemeanor, to $5,000 from $2,000.

Another new law, this one enacted in 2023, created a task force comprising county, state and federal law enforcement agency officials to crack down on illegal fireworks.

Task force No. 2

The Illegal Fireworks Task Force overseen by the state Department of Law Enforcement was formed in August 2023 and since 2024 has an annual budget appropriation of about $1.26 million.

Members include county police chiefs; county prosecuting attorneys; the state Department of the Attorney General; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Homeland Security Investigations; the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; and the state Department of Transportation Harbors Division.

In an initial task force report produced in December 2023, the Department of Law Enforcement said previous enforcement of Hawaii’s fireworks control law was focused on people who set off illegal fireworks, such as aerials, or who set off fireworks at inappropriate times or places, but that prosecutions of such offenses were often dropped for discretionary reasons.

The department, according to the report, considered employing a deterrence strategy by arresting as many fireworks offenders as possible in the community.

“Such a ‘sweep’ would immediately show the community that the IFTF would have ‘zero-tolerance’ for fireworks offenders,” the report said.

However, the department instead adopted what it described as a “surgical” approach concentrated on intercepting imports of illegal fireworks at Hawaii airports and harbors as well as government and private mail delivery systems.

“This focused approach on traffickers would then reduce the desire and opportunity to import and distribute illegal fireworks, and in turn, cascade into reducing demand by other importers, traffickers, and even end users,” the report said.

In an effort to help the task force find illegal fireworks shipments, the Legislature last year passed a bill that became Act 208 and requires licensed fireworks importers and sellers to maintain records and allow inspections by law enforcement.

Seizures of illegal fireworks by the task force in 2023 totaled about 93.5 tons, then dropped to about 24 tons in 2024.

Green on Wednesday said that realistically, there is no way to intercept all the illegal fireworks coming into the state.

The Department of Law Enforcement also said in its 2023 Illegal Fireworks Task Force report that it believes the biggest challenge in fireworks enforcement is “overcoming the local community’s high acceptance and tolerance for the use of illegal fireworks.”

The department is expected to deliver its second annual task force report to the Legislature this week, and is working on draft legislation to tighten the state’s fireworks laws.

Legislative outlook

Sen. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believes the task force has done a good job in a short amount of time, and he supports its continued work.

At the same time, Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-­Iwilei) is skeptical the Legislature can pass new laws that will meaningfully reduce the use of illegal fireworks in Hawaii.

“It’s a difficult problem to solve, partly because so many people love their fireworks,” he said.

There have been 32 bills introduced at the Legislature in the past two to three years aimed at combating illegal fireworks, according to Rhoads, who is the author of one measure that proposed to inspect more shipping containers identified by explosive-sniffing dogs. That bill did not pass in 2023 or 2024, and Rhoads intends to introduce a similar bill this year.

Other bills that failed in the past two years included one that would have required each county police department to establish a fireworks-focused enforcement unit, and one that proposed higher fines for fireworks law violations.

Rhoads said he isn’t confident that higher penalties will make a difference because many people don’t know what the penalties are and don’t think they will get caught.

Former state lawmaker Will Espero, who co-chaired the 2011 research task force as then-chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, said a lack of prosecutions, or publicity of prosecutions, is a huge failure in deterring people from violating Hawaii fireworks laws.

“That’s a major problem,” Espero said. “Right now I haven’t seen any consequences for the people who are smuggling.”

Espero, who encourages more shipping container inspections and higher penalties, said he believes a major crackdown with prosecutions would slow the flow of illegal fireworks to Hawaii and get community members to mostly buy into a change away from supporting or tolerating widespread low-level fireworks lawlessness.

Sen. Brandon Elefante, current chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, said he supports stiffer penalties and giving more resources to the Illegal Fireworks Task Force but would also like to see more enforcement of existing law.

“We need to do a way better job of enforcing what’s currently on our books,” said Elefante (D, Aiea-Pacific Palisades-Pearl City). “The issue of illegal fireworks, since we’ve had a ban with some exceptions, I feel has gotten worse and worse every year.”