A New Year's firework malfunction in Honolulu resulted in a catastrophic explosion, claiming the lives of three people and injuring over 20 others. The incident prompted authorities to call for an end to the city's fireworks tradition and promised stricter penalties for illegal firework use.
Emergency crews responded to a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighborhood after a large New Year's firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people and injured more than 20 others, several of them critically. Two women died at the scene and a third woman died at a hospital, authorities said Wednesday as they implored people to abandon their New Year's tradition of setting off fireworks across the city.
Officials promised tougher penalties for illegal fireworks. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green graphically described the deaths in a news conference Wednesday to emphasize the potential danger of fireworks. “We’re talking about the worst possible, war-zone injuries that took their lives.” Some of the more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and shrapnel wounds included children, said officials who had not yet publicly identified any victims including those killed. Police were investigating whether charges for the person who lit the firework near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan said. The blast happened at a three-story home with a bottom-level carport. Piles of debris including bundles of blackened firework mortars could be seen in front of the house in Wednesday's daylight. The explosion broke windows across the street. It happened when a lit bundle of aerial, mortar-style fireworks called a “cake” tipped over or fell off a table and fired sideways into crates containing additional fireworks, which then exploded. The cake's rounds could be separated but had been lit as a bundle of 50, part of what officials said was tens of thousands of dollars' worth of fireworks at the home. Ambulance crews arrived but had to triage — separate and treat victims with the worst injuries first — several houses away because of parked cars and crowds on the streets, Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Dr. Jim Ireland sai
Hawaii Fireworks Explosion Fatalities Injuries
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