On the same day that a sixth victim died following the Honolulu New Year’s fireworks blast, various state Senate committees passed bills Wednesday that would increase fines and penalties for people who fire off illegal pyrotechnics and also make it easier for law enforcement to cite and arrest them and for prosecutors to win convictions.
Legislators in both the House and Senate this year have introduced a series of bills following the New Year’s blast, which also injured dozens of partygoers on Keaka Drive in Aliamanu, many of them critically.
A “cake” filled with about 50 individual cartridges of aerial fireworks fell on its side and shot into two crates of fireworks, setting off the explosion.
Ten people have been arrested in the incident and investigations continue.
On Wednesday, the Senate committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection, Public Safety and Military Affairs and Transportation, and Culture and the Arts collectively moved out six bills that have the support of the state Attorney General, state Department of Law Enforcement and Honolulu Police Department.
Opposition to some of the bills came from groups including fireworks companies, the Libertarian Party of Hawaii and the state Office of Public Defender.
HPD Lt. Ernest Robello told a joint hearing of the Senate committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that fireworks enforcement and successful prosecutions are “currently difficult” because of the vagueness of laws and the requirements to seize evidence when there’s often no trace of explosive material after an illegal aerial blows up.
Minor fines and lack of prosecution just send the message that setting off illegal pyrotechnics has little consequence, Robello said.
Eliminating the requirement to seize evidence, have lab technicians then take time to measure and analyze any evidence and changing definitions will help lead to more citations, arrests and successful prosecutions, he said.
“We need some kind of deterrence,” Robello said.
Mike Lambert, Gov. Josh Green’s nominee to lead the state Department of Law Enforcement, also told the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that Hawaii has to ship seized, illegal pyrotechnics to the mainland for disposal at a cost of $1 million per container.
Without going into details, Lambert referred only to the “Waikele incident” and said that storing confiscated pyrotechnics in Hawaii presents “a huge, hazardous risk to law enforcement. … The state is taking on quite a bit of liability.”
In April 2011, four people were killed and two were injured, one critically, by a blast and fire in an underground former military bunker in Waikele that contained confiscated fireworks.
The explosion and fire occurred at the Waikele Business Center on Pakela Street.
Lambert told senators that the cost of shipping confiscated pyrotechnics to the mainland should be borne by violators, especially large distributors who make millions by importing them to the islands.
There were also several references to the Aliamanu explosion during the various committee hearings.
Gary Lum of the State Fire Council told senators during his testimony on Senate Bill 302 that one person on Oahu bought about 1,000 fireworks permits at a cost of $25 each that would allow for the purchase of 5 million firecrackers for “cultural use.”
“Where are they being stored?” Lum asked. “That presents as much of a hazard as the Aliamanu explosion.”
The joint committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts later passed SB 302, which would outlaw the use of consumer fireworks except for “cultural use” and by a permit.
It also would be illegal “to offer, display for sale, sell, or furnish consumer fireworks to any person except for cultural use by permit.”
Following Lum’s testimony, the committees also amended the bill to limit the number of cultural use permits that one person could buy to just five.
Requiring other counties to also charge $25 per permit — like Honolulu already does — for fireworks-related cultural uses like lion dances during Chinese New Year “would go a long ways to improving safety,” Lum told senators.
SB 302 also would make it illegal to sell fireworks more than five calendar days before a permitted cultural use.
The Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs also passed SB 222 on Wednesday. Along with HB 187, it would create the Illegal Fireworks Enforcement Division within the Department of Law Enforcement.
It would be composed of seven investigators and an office clerk to investigate both fireworks and firearm violations and establish a DLE lab to do analysis on evidence, Lambert told senators.
SB 227, which also passed Wednesday, would fund a new Fireworks Enforcement Division within the DLE.
The Senate Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee also passed SB 476, which would increase fines for fireworks violations.
The joint Senate committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and Transportation and Culture and the Arts also passed SB 1226.
Along with its companion, House Bill 414, SB 1226 would make the DLE the lead agency working with shippers, harbors, harbor users and county and federal law enforcement on a proposed Shipping Container Inspection Program.
Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) asked Lambert if inspection teams would have to clear out nearly an entire shipping container to inspect for illegal pyrotechnics hidden in the back behind legally shipped goods — or whether pyrotechnic detecting dogs would know fireworks were inside by simply opening a container’s door.
Lambert replied that the dogs — in some cases — would be able to identify pyrotechnics just by smelling the outside of a container.
The Senate committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts also passed SB 1324. Along with its companion, House Bill 1005, SB 1324 would increase penalties “if another person suffers substantial bodily injury, serious bodily injury, or death as a result of the fireworks offenses.”
It also would create first- and second-degree criminal offenses for violating bans on illegal pyrotechnics, “sending or receiving fireworks or articles pyrotechnic by air delivery; distributing fireworks or articles pyrotechnic to non-permit holder; removal or extraction of pyrotechnic contents; consumer fireworks prohibitions; refusal to provide identification; and violating requirements of carrier.”
But the Senate committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Public Safety and Military Affairs deferred taking a vote on SB 999 until next week.
It would repeal “all permissible uses of consumer fireworks,” create civil penalties for using and selling fireworks and allow assets to be forfeited.
A special fund also would be created to use forfeited assets to pay for safety education programs.
