A 38-year-old woman died early Sunday from injuries she suffered in a fireworks-
related incident.
The Honolulu Fire Department says it received a call for a medical emergency at a Komohana Street address in Kapolei at 12:08 a.m. When firefighters arrived they were alerted to two injured people, a man and a woman, with bystanders performing CPR on the woman.
HFD spokesman Capt. Kevin Mokulehua said firefighters continued CPR on the woman and transferred care of both patients to city ambulance crews who arrived two minutes later.
“Witnesses stated that both patients were using fireworks prior to their injury,” Mokulehua said.
EMS spokesman Ian
Santee said the woman and a 36-year-old man had “flash-related burn injuries.” He said both were in critical condition when ambulance crews transported them to separate hospitals.
Honolulu police said the woman died a little after
1 a.m. Sunday.
The incident happened in front of Pinky Tows, a towing company, at 91-229 Komohana St. A woman at the business who chose not to be identified said the injured man and deceased woman are related. She said the woman was her niece who worked at Pinky Tows and another business at the same address owned by the same family. She said the 36-year-old man is her nephew.
She said an ambulance took her niece to Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu, where she died, and that another ambulance took her nephew to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu where he was scheduled to undergo surgery.
Police say they are investigating the death and injury as prohibited-explosive-device cases but have made no arrests or issued any citations.
Santee said the two critical injury transports were the most serious of the seven fireworks-related injuries EMS responded to overnight, about the same number as a year ago.
On Kauai, a 28-year-old man injured his right hand in a fireworks-related incident in Wailua Houselots shortly after midnight Sunday. Kauai officials say the man was throwing some fireworks when one of them exploded in midair, about
2 to 4 feet away from him.
Honolulu ambulance crews responded to 241 calls on New Year’s Eve plus 28 in the first hour of the new year, most them in West Oahu.
“With 18 ambulances responding to 28 calls, that’s a lot,” Santee said.
Mokulehua said most of HFD’s New Year’s Eve celebration calls were also from West Oahu. He said firefighters responded to 19 fireworks-related incidents, about twice as many as last year, with most of them occurring between 11 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.
He said there were a few structure and brush fires but none serious enough to warrant a second alarm.
“Fortunately most of the fires were mitigated during the earlier stages of the fire, either by bystanders or by the time fire personnel got on the scene they said it was either extinguished or under control,” Mokulehua said.
He said the most serious of the structure fires caused an estimated $43,000 damage to a home on Makaike Street in Ewa Beach.
“We just want to remind the community that if everyone plays by the rules, adheres to the laws that are given to everyone, there would be fewer injures, fewer fires and everyone would truly have a happy new year,” Mokulehua said.