Keola and Sarah were going to go into Honolulu to watch the fireworks and soak in the Hawaiian New Year experience. When they heard the crashing sounds of exploding illegal fireworks and seeing how many people were setting off the banned bombs, they decided to watch the mayhem celebration from our second floor windows.
They sat at different windows in awe of the seemingly endless supply of illegal fireworks that were exploding well before and after the legal time constraints all over the island.
One person died and her friend was hospitalized. Apparently, she wasn't even setting them off. She was just watching. The fire department, police and hospitals responded to dozens of fireworks related injuries and incidents throughout the night.
Firecrackers are the only things that are legal and you have to get a permit to buy them. My question is this. Where the heck are they buying these illegal displays? Some are spectacular enough to look professional. Some are bombs that set off car alarms. They're not sold in stores, so where are they getting them?
There's a hue and cry every year for the first couple of days and then it's forgotten until the following year. Sounds an awful lot like gun control doesn't it?
They sat at different windows in awe of the seemingly endless supply of illegal fireworks that were exploding well before and after the legal time constraints all over the island.
One person died and her friend was hospitalized. Apparently, she wasn't even setting them off. She was just watching. The fire department, police and hospitals responded to dozens of fireworks related injuries and incidents throughout the night.
Firecrackers are the only things that are legal and you have to get a permit to buy them. My question is this. Where the heck are they buying these illegal displays? Some are spectacular enough to look professional. Some are bombs that set off car alarms. They're not sold in stores, so where are they getting them?
There's a hue and cry every year for the first couple of days and then it's forgotten until the following year. Sounds an awful lot like gun control doesn't it?
Hi the display looks fabulous but I wonder if the dangers come from them being illegal so the products aren't tested and approved for public use.
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point. If someone wants something illegal they will find it. Just like prohibition...how did anyone know where the speakeasys were? It is called vice and corruption. When my children would visit their father on Independence Day he would take them to the lake where friends set off dynamite!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was over there two years ago, they set off fireworks on the beach every night. Scott and I would sit out on his balcony and watch them. Some were spectacular!
ReplyDeleteEvery six months: July 4th is coming!
ReplyDeleteI don't know where they get them in Hawaii, but here they are easy to purchase from the nearby Native American tribes. And this year they went off for hours! That's how I knew it was midnight: they woke me up. :-)
ReplyDeleteI had a cousin who sold the illegal big stuff. He got them from the Big Island so somehow these products (mostly from China) made it past customs.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about our New Years firework tradition. I think they are beautiful and a noisy celebration of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year. Burning money by exploding it.
And then there is the pollution - noise, smoke, red paper on the streets, and danger. Our dogs go nuts unless they are tranquilized and then take 2 days to recover. There is no real control and those loud bombs shake the house and make me jump.
This year, the evening skies were clear and cool, with a nice tradewind breeze to blow away all the smoke. This made the fireworks extra beautiful. The ushering in of a new year, hopefully a great one.
You are right about all the hue and cry for more control soon after, and then it totally dies down. I have never had a new year without the smell and sounds of fireworks blasting everywhere. Not sure if I would miss it if it wasn't there, or maybe I would, as if something were amiss, and long for it.
I enjoy watching fireworks although I only ever make the effort to do so on July 4th. My neighbor's little boy used to call them roomie lights.
ReplyDeleteinteresting question-I wonder too where they are buying them...
ReplyDeleteSomeone is making them or importing them from China. Here they bring them in from Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI remember the fireworks when I was in graduate school there. It was deafening. Not changed. Someone is making money off of this black market. It could be stopped if people really wanted it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a black market thing. I'm sure they couldn't have been cheap since nobody can drive a car into Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteIf they made lettuce illegal, there would be a huge market for it and someone would sell it black market. Kind of sad. Lettuce as far as I know, doesn't kill or maim.
ReplyDeleteMany explosions out here in the country on the Big Island. Fireworks are sold all over the place here in the weeks leading up to NYE. I like the idea of it, but...
ReplyDeleteVancouver Washington has banned fireworks for the 4th of July celebration starting soon..We have a huge huge Fireworks display possibly once of the biggest in the whole USA at the Fort Vancouver national park, now only that will stand..They used to let people go nuts on New Years Eve no more, the terrible fires and it destroyed lots of peoples backyards, I say hip hip hurrah..If one wants to see fireworks head to Disneyland, Disneyworld and universal studios either in LA or Florida, what a big big waste of money and so dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFor years we had a ban on fireworks but like you fireworks were heard. All we had to do was cross into Montana and we could buy everything.
ReplyDeleteI never feel safe near fireworks.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. They're not illegal here.
ReplyDeletePeople don't use common sense when it comes to fireworks. Here we have then only for the 4th of July and we do have a ban here on personal use fireworks, but that doesn't stop people from setting them off.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Honolulu for New Years a long time ago. It seemed like the whole island was exploding!