The horrific fireworks- related death and destruction from recent New Year’s Eve celebrations on Oahu were on the minds of many residents who dropped off legal and contraband pyrotechnics at the Aloha Stadium parking lot Saturday, according to officials who organized the amnesty event.
“Certainly we had people come in and say that the events of New Year’s Eve and the tragedy that happened in Aliamanu impacted them and they thought it was a good idea to get these things out of their house and not store them until next year,” said Brooks Baehr, public information officer for the state Department of Law Enforcement.
The amnesty event, held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., offered a secure way for people to dispose of their unused fireworks in a safe manner — no questions asked. Other sponsors were the state Department of the Attorney General, the Honolulu police and fire departments, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Law Enforcement Department Director Jordan Lowe said the event was held partially in response to an accidental explosion of illegal fireworks at an Aliamanu home in Salt Lake at 12:01 a.m. New Year’s Day that killed three women and a 3-year-old boy and critically injured dozens more.
That heart-breaking tragedy shocked the community and served to “highlight the dangerousness of fireworks,” Lowe said.
He described Saturday’s turnout as steady and estimated that more fireworks were turned in at the lone collection site at Aloha Stadium than at the previous amnesty event held Dec. 17, 2023, at four different fire stations, when 515 pounds of pyrotechnic items were surrendered.
Officials said it was too early to tally up the haul from Saturday’s event and that the information would be released later this week. The items included firecrackers, fountains and other ground fireworks, aerial fireworks and even “cake fireworks” — the type of bundled pyrotechnics involved in the Aliamanu incident.
“We got what we were we expecting and we’re happy that people are recognizing that storing fireworks in their homes is a fire hazard,” Lowe said. “So obviously we wanted to give the public an opportunity to dispose of unwanted fireworks to law enforcement so we can properly dispose of them.
“Some of the fireworks are totally banned, so it’s good to recover those items because they are inherently dangerous,” he added.
In publicizing Saturday’s amnesty event, the Department of Law Enforcement emphasized that “it is dangerous to store fireworks at home. They can ignite, start a fire and injure people. Fireworks should also be properly disposed of, and not thrown away in everyday household rubbish. They can injure refuse workers, contaminate the environment or create other dangerous situations.”
The public was advised to put their unused fireworks in a container in their vehicle’s trunk or truck bed and bring them to the stadium. Once there, people were told that they didn’t even have to get out of their vehicles and could just pop the trunk so law enforcement personnel could grab the fireworks before sending them on their way.
The items collected will be inventoried and placed in safe storage for later disposal, Baehr said.
Since it was a “no questions asked” operation, officials were discreet in their interactions with those who drove up to drop off fireworks, but Lowe said some people commented that “they had these fireworks and didn’t want to throw them in the garbage or anything, which is a good thing.”
Baehr said some of the folks he spoke with said they had been storing leftover fireworks from previous years and wanted to dispose of them safely, and one man indicated he had obtained permits for legal use of firecrackers for the recent New Year’s holiday but was prevented by rain from setting them off and didn’t want to store them at home for next time.
Anyone who missed the amnesty event and would like to get rid of legal or illegal fireworks in their possession without penalty may call 808-517-2182.
