The booms started before Thanksgiving.

Almost every night since then, Melvin and Dorin McKeague have had to endure the sometimes wall- rattling sounds of illegal fireworks going off in their Makakilo neighborhood.

Melvin McKeague, 64, already was stressed dealing with a rare form of cancer, diagnosed last year, and the chemo treatments that make him especially sensitive to noises.

Now he dreads what has become an all-too-frequent nightmare — one that disrupts the neighborhood, freaks out the couple’s dog, Lilikoi, and is expected to intensify as the new year approaches.

“It just puts his stomach in knots,” McKeague’s wife, Dorin McKeague, 62, said of her husband’s reaction to the random firework blasts. “It makes him a wreck, just a wreck.”

Oahu has long had a problem with illegal fireworks, especially the aerials that temporarily transform many neighborhoods into dazzling landscapes on New Year’s Eve but terrorize pets, frighten small children and stress residents — especially those with health problems — who aren’t into the booming celebrations.

Some on social media sites say the problem is emerging earlier and earlier.

“Sick of all the fireworks,” one Makakilo woman recently wrote on nextdoor.com. “When did they become a part of Thanksgiving?”

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Rep. Ty Cullen (D, Waipahu-Royal Kunia- Makakilo) said in his neighborhood the fireworks blasts have been heard randomly all year long but more frequently since Halloween.

State law restricts the use of legal fireworks to between 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve and 1 a.m. New Year’s Day. Limited hours also are established for Chinese New Year and the Fourth of July.

The proliferation of the explosive contraband on Oahu underscores a long- standing reality. Authorities largely have been unable to curtail the supply of aerials and other black-market fireworks.

That is especially obvious during the cacophony that envelopes many neighborhoods on New Year’s Eve.

Despite widespread evidence of a problem, prosecutions of the suppliers who fuel the black market are few and far between.

“People know they can do it and get away with it,” said Sherry Souza, general manager of J and M Displays, which conducts the annual fireworks show off Ala Moana on the Fourth of July.

Of the 41 states where J and M conducts shows, Hawaii by far has the greatest problem with illegal fireworks, according to Souza, who is based in California but comes to the islands frequently to produce fireworks shows. “I’m just amazed and blown away,” she said of the prevalence of the illegal commodities. “How it all gets into the state, I really don’t know.”

Only a handful of cases involving the illegal importation of fireworks or the unauthorized possession of display fireworks — the type intended for commercial shows — have been publicly reported in recent years. Federal prosecutors handled those cases, at least one of which involved smuggling from China.

In 2011 a task force of representatives from federal, state and county agencies; fireworks companies; shipping carriers; and other organizations noted the overall dearth of prosecutions.

“The difficulty of successfully prosecuting state criminal fireworks cases has resulted in few actual convictions,” the task force wrote in its report to the Legislature. “Furthermore, the entire process of prosecuting fireworks violators can take a long time. Even when significant arrests occur, they are so few and far between that the public forgets about them and they lose their preemptive effect.”

The group also noted that fireworks offenses differ from drug trafficking or other organized crime because many violators are friends, family members or neighbors. “This results in a lack of community cooperation in identifying illegal importers and distributors,” the report said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which handles fireworks- related prosecutions at the federal level, was unable to provide statistics on cases prosecuted in recent years. The office provided the Honolulu Star-Advertiser with information about a single case from 2018 in which a man was sentenced for possession of explosives (display fireworks) and a drug charge.

The fireworks had been stolen from a company that produces commercial fireworks shows.

The U.S. attorney’s office declined comment for this story.

The city Prosecutor’s Office provided the Star- Advertiser with a database of nearly 50 fireworks cases from 2015 to 2019 in which trials were set. But most if not all those involved users, not suppliers.

The majority of the cases ended in dismissals.

Will Espero, who as a state senator in 2011 was co-chairman of the fireworks task force, said most of the illegal fireworks in Hawaii are believed to come from the mainland, given that most domestic shipping containers are not inspected.

And the minority that are inspected, according to the task force report, are not likely to result in flagged illegal fireworks. Agriculture inspectors, for instance, are looking for invasive pests, not fireworks. Others are checking weight measures and other issues.

“Inspectors often rely upon accurate package labeling and declarations in shipping paperwork,” the report said. “This makes discoveries of illegal fireworks extremely challenging since these goods are purposely mislabeled and undeclared to avoid detection.”

One of the recommendations made by the task force was to begin random inspections of domestic shipping containers, looking specifically for illegal fireworks.

But bills to create such a program have failed at the Legislature several times since then.

One such measure, House Bill 858, which was introduced last session by Cullen, didn’t even get a hearing.

The legislation noted that more than 90% of the 200,000-plus shipping containers to Hawaii arrive from the continental U.S. each year, and only a fraction of those are inspected. “The lack of sufficient cargo inspections means that there is ample opportunity for illegal fireworks and explosives to be smuggled into the state,” the bill stated.

Cullen told the Star- Advertiser in an email that he believes increased monitoring would help.

“Random inspections would be another tool for all law enforcement parties to intercept and confiscate illegal aerial explosives,” he wrote. “The more illegal aerial explosives that law enforcement can take off the streets the safer the public will be.”

Keoni Wagner, a spokesman for Matson, Hawaii’s largest ocean cargo carrier, noted that fireworks are legal on some islands and permitted on others for special events, so fireworks can be imported legally.

“The other important thing to note is that there already is an inspection system in place that we think is appropriate and effective,” he said in an email.

Containers on every ship are inspected by one or more of these organizations — Customs, the Coast Guard, state Department of Agriculture and Matson — in programs that overlap, according to Wagner.

“Matson has always worked closely with the state and other authorities to make sure that our operations meet or exceed regulations, and in 20 years of the current cargo inspection regime, we’re not aware of any case of illegal fireworks onboard,” he said.

The task force report also stated that “many fireworks violations involve the illegal use or diversion of fireworks brought in legally, and more inspections will not help this.”

Residents who have complained on social media say something must be done to curtail the problem.

Dorin McKeague, the Makakilo homeowner, said she and her husband last year called police, who were “awesome,” but the couple was told nothing could be done unless officers witnessed the offense.

The noise got so bad last year that her husband, a retired tractor-trailer driver, wanted to move.

“He just totally stresses out,” like he has PTSD, Dorin McKeague said.

So many illegal fireworks rattle the neighborhood that McKeague wonders how they are able to arrive in Hawaii undetected.

“I just don’t understand how they get here,” she said.

Legal fireworks are allowed from 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve to 1 a.m. New Year’s Day.