Hawaii Legislature will again focus on illegal fireworks

Clamping down on illegal fireworks and changing outlaw pyrotechnic behavior will be the early focus of the legislative session that begins Wednesday following the deaths of five people — including a 3-year-old boy — and injuries to dozens more that marred New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Legislators are expected to introduce — or reintroduce — bills aimed at intercepting shipments of illegal fireworks coming into Hawaii harbors and perhaps increasing penalties, which already include the possibility of jail time.

“This is going to jump to the top of the Legislature’s and (Honolulu) City Council’s priorities,” said Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and serves as associate professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. “Nothing concentrates public officials to solve a problem like what happened on New Year’s Eve. There are already fines and criminal penalties, but I’m sure there’s more that can be done on the enforcement side.”

Ultimately, Moore said, reducing illegal fireworks in nearly all isle neighborhoods will depend on changing the belief that setting off bomb-like explosions, millions of firecrackers and illegal aerials is an acceptable local custom that celebrates Asian cultural traditions.

“There are a lot of people that participate in illegal fireworks, as most people know,” he said. “So it’s a very difficult problem to solve. But if the public doesn’t participate in enforcement (by reporting neighbors to police), it’s going to continue. This is not acceptable. This is dangerous.”

State Rep. Scot Matayoshi (D, Kaneohe-Maunawili) enjoys honoring his Asian culture by popping off legal fireworks but said his neighborhood has gotten out of control with concussive explosions that shook his house and upset his children and dog.

“I’m Asian and my family gets permits every year,” Matayoshi said. “I love it. It’s part of my tradition. But here we’re talking about huge amounts of explosives that are not the culture heritage of ancient China.”

Matayoshi plans to introduce bills this session that would provide more funding for fireworks sting operations using officers posing as either buyers or sellers, along with penalties aimed at state or county employees, including law enforcement officers, involved in felony-level amounts of pyrotechnics.

All state and city employees would be subject to any such legislation, “and would include my staff, too,” Matayoshi said.

If convicted, they would lose half of their government pensions.

Incentive for change

The state Department of Law Enforcement is working with Gov. Josh Green, the state Department of the Attorney General and other law enforcement agencies on a package of bills to deter illegal pyrotechnics.

The Law Enforcement Department also plans to ask legislators to allow it to create an Explosive Enforcement Unit under its Illegal Fireworks Task Force.

For years, people across the state have complained that the annual New Year’s Eve barrage — and smaller Fourth of July celebrations — negatively affects children, pets, patients with respiratory problems and war veterans with post-­traumatic stress disorder.

More neighbors will have to complain to police — and can do so anonymously — and officers will have to enforce existing laws and perhaps new ones that might pass this legislative session, Moore said.

“Everyone agrees it’s a problem,” he said. “In a lot of neighborhoods it’s completely out of control, even in dense Honolulu neighborhoods. So it’s going to take social pressure to solve this.”

Tragedy tests resolve

In 2000, legislators made it illegal for amateurs to set off aerials. Yet, at the end of that year, on Dec. 30, 2000, an illegal aerial ignited a blaze that burned down the Palolo Valley home of Lillian Herring, 81, killing her and her two dogs. And ever since, people across the state continue to blow off their fingers and thumbs and do serious injury to their hands, faces and other body parts.

But the latest tragedy in Aliamanu maimed and disfigured children, along with the death of 3-year-old Cassius Ramos-Benigno, which Moore believes will have a deeper influence on public tolerance of illegal fireworks.

“That, of course, makes it all the more horrific and tragic and underscores how dangerous it is,” he said.

The fatal explosion occurred at a home on Keaka Drive at 12:01 a.m. New Year’s Day when a “cake bomb” loaded with illegal aerial fireworks detonated in close proximity to a crowd of partygoers, killing Carmelita Benigno, 61, Nelie Ibarra, 58, and Jennifer Van, 23.

The toddler died of his injuries Monday and many other victims remain hospitalized.

Jayson Ramos, 20, also died Dec. 31 from a separate fireworks blast on Lukela Lane in Kalihi.

The New Year’s Eve casualties included a 14-year-old boy who suffered burns to his hand from an apparent fireworks blast at Mayor Wright Homes, and a 34-year-old man who suffered a “traumatic hand injury” from a suspected fireworks explosion at an undisclosed location.

Other incidents involved a 25-year-old man with an extensive hand injury in Kalihi that sent him to a trauma center in serious condition, and minor leg burns to a 59-year-old woman and 72-year-old man in Ewa Beach.

On Maui, firefighters responded to 22 fires from 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve to 6 a.m. New Year’s Day, and reported that one person suffered a fireworks-related eye injury.

According to Matayoshi, the carnage in Aliamanu drove complaints to legislators to triple so far this year.

Trying to stop imported pyrotechnics will have little overall effect because of the volume of containers that arrive every day, he said. The lawmaker rode aboard an arriving container ship and said that intercepting fireworks before they reach shore won’t work because it’s like finding “a needle in a moving haystack.”

In the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers killed nearly two dozen bills intended to do more to crack down on illegal fireworks. But they did create a joint county, state and federal task force that had immediate success by seizing about 93.5 tons of illegal pyrotechnics just months later, an amount that dropped to about 24 tons in 2024.

Residents, however, continued to complain that the tons of seizures by the Illegal Fireworks Task Force resulted in little change in their neighborhoods, suggesting that the volume of illegal pyrotechnics coming into the islands remains enormous.

Fire claims in limbo

While pressure grows to do more, Green and legislators also face a critical unknown that will dictate how much money they will have to further address homelessness, housing and helping residents afford to live in Hawaii.

Green had hoped that the Hawaii Supreme Court would rule this month — in the state’s favor — to resolve a proposed $4.037 billion settlement over the 2023 Maui wildfires that would avert over 650 lawsuits filed in state and federal courts. But the high court has not scheduled oral arguments until Feb. 6, followed by deliberations.

When the court could issue its opinion remains uncertain. The ruling will determine whether the state’s $750 million contribution to the proposed settlement could skyrocket through future lawsuits from insurance companies, an industry practice known as subrugation.

In August, attorneys representing more than 160 insurance companies that issued policies on Maui filed a motion to have 2nd Circuit Chief Judge Peter Cahill ask the Hawaii Supreme Court to determine the lawfulness of his earlier ruling that would prevent them from pursuing damages directly from defendants including Hawaiian Electric, the state, Kamehameha Schools and Maui County.

Cahill had barred the insurance companies from suing the defendants involved in the billion-dollar settlement in the aftermath of the wildfires that killed 102 people and destroyed nearly 4,000 structures, most of them homes.

Whatever the court decides, political analyst Neal Milner said the fiscal implications for the state and Maui County, in particular, won’t be immediately known because whoever loses will likely appeal.

“Whatever happens with any major litigation, the first consequence is delay,” Milner said. “All the bad things that could happen are not likely to happen quickly. So legislators are not going to know anything for sure during the whole session, even if the insurance companies win because there are going to be appeals.”

The court challenge particularly adds more uncertainty for Maui County, Milner said.

“It’s another chunk of anxiety for Maui,” he said.

Green has repeatedly said that the settlement would prevent the county from filing for bankruptcy.

But the insurance industry also has a business model that relies on its ability to sue defendants in order to recoup its losses, Milner said.

Whatever happens, Green and a consensus of legislators agree on the need to make life easier for island residents by reducing state income taxes and creating more affordable housing, especially on Maui where landlords continue to raise rents in the aftermath of the wildfires.

More affordable living

Neither Green nor legislators face reelection this year, which could allow them to make bold moves, including finally determining how to charge tourists an additional fee to help the state address climate change and avert future disasters.

The governor’s proposed state budget calls for no increase to the state’s $1.5 billion “rainy day fund.” But Green wants to dedicate all of the estimated $66 million in annual interest on the fund to help Hawaii address the effects of climate change and and better protect the islands from future wildfires, according to the state Department of Budget and Finance.

The governor previously told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser the state needs $100 million to $200 million annually to work toward those goals.

The $1.5 billion size of the rainy day fund also keeps the state’s interest rates low when it comes to issuing bonds to pay for major capital improvement projects.

Green will outline further specifics on his legislative goals Jan. 21 during his State of the State address.

In the House, some members are discussing the possibility of increasing the maximum income to qualify for “affordable housing” in order to help working families. Most affordable housing programs apply only to households earning up to 60% of the area median income.

Instead, some House members are talking about possibly raising the income maximum to 140% of the area median income.