Tanner Catrett was outside a former Navy munitions bunker in Waikele with his back to the entrance when he heard and felt a concussive “boom.”
He jumped out of the way and rolled on the ground, and when he turned around he saw smoke and flames coming out of the bunker. Smaller explosions followed and debris whizzed past his head.
With his work crew inside, Catrett frantically tried to enter with a fire extinguisher, emptying its contents in the process, but the flames and heat were too intense. He called out but got no response.
He called 911.
Then co-worker Bryan Cabalce emerged, engulfed in flames, with his hands straight in front of him “like a zombie,” Catrett recalled. He directed Cabalce to a puddle of water, laid him down and splashed him.
That account, based on Catrett’s statements to first responders, is included in newly released reports from the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Catrett, 38, is the lone survivor of the April 8, 2011, explosion of stored fireworks that claimed the lives of five Donaldson Enterprises Inc. workers he supervised. He escaped with a minor burn on his back.
Robert Kevin Freeman, Justin Joseph Kelii, Robert Leahey and Neil Benjamin Sprankle died in the bunker. Cabalce died at Straub Clinic & Hospital.
Donaldson Enterprises, its director of operations, Charles Donaldson, and project manager, Carlton Finley, are awaiting trial in July in U.S. District Court.
They are charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and treating hazardous waste improperly and without a state permit by having the workers dismantle fireworks in the bunker. They also face charges of illegally disposing of fireworks at Scho- field Barracks and of lying about it to authorities.
Donaldson Enterprises was renting the Waikele bunker and was subcontracted to store and dispose of illegal fireworks that had been seized by the federal government.
The federal prosecutor wants to present as evidence statements Catrett made to Honolulu police, Honolulu firefighters and the ATF on the day of the explosion and in the days afterward.
Such statements — not made in court under oath — are hearsay and generally cannot be used as evidence in a trial because defendants and their lawyers did not have the opportunity to cross-examine the witness. The U.S. attorney is asking the court to allow the statements under an exception to the hearsay rule.
Catrett was Donaldson Enterprises’ explosive ordnance disposal supervisor. He had gone on two tours to Iraq during his eight years in the Army as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist.
In the reports, filed recently in federal court, he said the crew was working on the landing outside the bunker but had to move inside because it started raining. While the crew was still moving inside, Catrett said, he and Cabalce went outside to jump-start his pickup truck. The battery had died because they had been playing the radio for the work crew.
After they got his truck started, they both went inside, but Catrett said he went back outside to make a telephone call because the reception inside the bunker was poor. He said the explosion happened just after he hung up.
When police arrived, two Honolulu Fire Department engine companies were already there.
The first two officers to respond said in their reports that they heard explosions on their way and after they arrived and that smoke was billowing from the bunker. When they got there Cabalce was lying in some brush in front of another bunker.
He was alive but had burns on his entire body, and his clothing and skin were smoldering. One officer said Cabalce was able to give him his first name but not his last.
The officers also said Catrett was running frantically back and forth in front of the bunker.
“My crew is still inside!” he told them.
They said Catrett appeared shaken and was crying.
The families of the five men who died sued VSE Corp., the company they say held the contract with the federal government to transport, store and dispose of seized fireworks; subcontractors Blanchard and Associates Inc. and Donaldson Enterprises; and the real estate company that held the master lease to the Navy’s former munitions bunker complex. The families settled with the real estate company in 2014 for $1.5 million and with Blanchard and Associates last year for $1 million.
