Hawaii fireworks injuries have risen over past decade

The number of fireworks-­related injuries in Hawaii has steadily risen over the past decade and a half, reaching a 15-year high over the latest New Year’s holiday, according to updated statistics from the state Department of Health.

Additionally, the Aliamanu fireworks explosion on New Year’s Day has now become the deadliest in the isles after the death toll climbed to six, surpassing five from a bunker explosion in 2011.

The state Department of Health recently updated the number of fireworks-related injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2024-2025 to 112, after late data came in from a hospital. Of that total, 91 were on Oahu and 21 on neighbor islands.

Previously, DOH had reported there were 110 injuries for the most recent New Year’s holiday.

“As 2025 progresses, DOH would like to spread awareness of the risk of fireworks- related injuries,” said the department in a newsletter, “especially after the tragic events of New Year’s Day and during the recent Lunar New Year celebrations.”

The 112 injuries are an 87% jump from 60 recorded over the 2023-24 New Year’s and 107% higher than 54 in 2022-23.

In 2024-25, DOH ambulances took a third of the 112 injured patients to hospitals, the highest proportion over any new-year period, while 27 were hospitalized, compared with six on average. Patients ranged from 1 to 83 years old.

In the previous 14 years, the number of injuries fluctuated from as low as 23 in 2011-12, the year after stricter rules were implemented on Oahu, to 64 in 2020-2021. The number never surpassed 100 in those 14 years, and averaged about 48 per year.

The last time injuries reached 112 was in 2009-2010.

Data is collected from the emergency departments of 22 hospitals and the Hana and Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Centers during the New Year’s and Fourth of July holidays.

Although fireworks are becoming more common year-round, including on Super Bowl Sunday, DOH says these two holidays account for about two-thirds of the injuries in a given year.

In Hawaii, New Year’s results in more injuries, while the Fourth results in an average of seven per year.

Types of injuries

Year after year, Honolulu EMS responds to numerous fireworks-related injuries over these two holidays — ranging from severe burns to laceration and shrapnel injuries, serious head and eye injuries and occasional loss of limbs, including individual fingers and hands.

The Aliamanu explosion was an unprecedented mass casualty event that overwhelmed Hawaii hospitals after midnight, prompting the state to send six of the most severely injured patients by military jet to the Arizona Burn Center.

Two women were found dead at the scene, while four others, including a 3-year-old boy, died days to weeks later from their injuries.

Separately, a 20-year-old man died after suffering severe injuries from a fireworks blast in Kalihi.

According to DOH, about 58% of fireworks-related injuries over the past New Year’s were burns, with 21% to the hands and 13% to the hands or face. More than half, 52%, were blast injuries to the hand, head or face or legs, and 26% had both burn and blast injuries.

Most injuries occurred on Oahu, and most of those injured, 74%, were male.

The second most deadly fireworks explosion on Oahu occurred in April 2011 when confiscated fireworks components and other items in a Waikele storage facility using a former World War II military bunker exploded.

In all, five men died, and one other was injured by the explosion. The men worked for Donaldson Enterprises, a company specializing in unexploded ordnance disposal.

The five men were working to disassemble the fireworks, which included “cake fireworks” with multitube devices that they were cutting by hand, according to a final investigation report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

When it began to rain heavily, the workers moved the items, including a metal hand carrier, inside of the bunker entrance, when the explosion occurred. The report said loose, explosive pyrotechnic powder was likely ignited by friction or a metal-to-metal spark.

Three died from fatal burn injuries, while two died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The project supervisor, who was outside of the bunker making a phone call, sustained minor injuries.

EMS has over the years responded to injuries resulting from aerial fireworks hitting people in the face and neck, as well as the genitals and other extremities — and occasionally seen injuries that resulted in death.

Over the Fourth of July in 2023, a 20-year-old Kailua­-Kona man died after holding a fireworks launcher above his head in a parking lot. He suffered a head injury and later died at the hospital.

Over New Year’s in 2023, Honolulu paramedics responded to a flurry of 911 calls for a man with an extensive eye injury in Windward Oahu and a 14-year-old girl in Waipahu with injuries to her legs, arms and face when an explosive went off inside a room.

Preventing injuries

Hawaii’s annual numbers on fireworks injuries seemed to drop dramatically in 2011-2012, when they reached a low of just 23 after a stricter permitting system was implemented on Oahu.

A study published in Injury Prevention found that there was a decrease in fireworks-related injuries in Hawaii, particularly among children, after legislation requiring permits for a specific number and type of fireworks to those ages 18 and older.

State legislators this year are considering several bills to increase penalties for people who launch illegal fireworks, as well as to make it easier for law enforcement to cite and arrest them.

Consumer fireworks, both legal and illegal, were the cause of some 9,700 injuries treated in ERs across America in 2023, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A national study also found fireworks injuries to be on the rise in the U.S. and that the numbers tend to rise with relaxed laws governing sales of consumer fireworks.

The authors said public health interventions also may be effective at reducing injuries. They noted that the United Kingdom places warning labels on firework packages, while educational intervention seemed successful among younger children during the Persian Festival of Fire in Iran.

DOH last sent out a public health message on fireworks safety in 2017, with a news release urging people to attend professional shows instead and to use extra caution while handling fireworks.

DOH and the CPSC both recommend never allowing children to handle fireworks; never using fireworks while impaired by alcohol or drugs; and only using them away from people, houses and flammable material.

During an amnesty event in January, the state collected more than 1,300 pounds of fireworks.