Posted at 11 a.m., Thursday, July 5, 2001
Two fireworks displays suffer July 4th mishaps
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Fourth of July fireworks shows on opposite sides of O'ahu were hampered by unusual problems yesterday. The fireworks display over Magic Island suffered from a misfire and delays, while the barge launching the Flat Island show sank in the middle of the night, dumping debris along a 300-yard stretch of Kailua Beach.
Meanwhile, firefighters and emergency medical crews spent the last 12 hours of the holiday hustling to 100 calls, but pronounced the pace normal for the Fourth of July.
Gary Wong, an employee with Hawaii Explosives, said this morning that the mortars used to launch the Kailua show had washed up on the beach. Black PVC pipes ranging from 3 inches to 12 inches in diameter and wooden crates were spread everywhere.
"They are kind of all over," Wong said. "It is a pretty big mess. Usually we keep everything in place on the barge and we can clean it up in an hour. This will take us half a day."
Workers discovered the mess at 6 a.m.
The rented barge may have hit a coral head, Wong said.
Ala Moana show delayed
The show at Magic Island, put on by Pyro Spectaculars of Rialto, Calif., was halted 10 minutes after it started because of a misfire, said Sherry Souza, head pyrotechnician for the company.
"We had a low burst that damaged some of our firing equipment, so I stopped the show to make sure it was safe to carry on," Souza said this morning.
The show resumed after 10 minutes, but there was a second delay that lasted 30 minutes. The show eventually finished, but without musical accompaniment.
Souza said she thinks a delay on the explosive charge failed and exploded on the ground. More tests will be needed to confirm that, she said. All of her crew was 800 feet away and no one was injured, she said.
"I apologize to everybody, but when you are dealing with 4,000 pounds of explosives, safety comes first," Souza said.
Fire department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said the chief wants a written explanation from Pyro Spectaculars. Brush fires keep fighters busy
Soo said firefighters were busy yesterday, but there were no fireworks related structure fires or injuries.
The department tallied numbers for the hours between noon and midnight. Soo said it usually takes a full 24-hour shift to reach 100 calls.
Engine and ladder companies were sent to 40 brush or rubbish fires, Soo said. Units in Leeward and Central O'ahu were the busiest, he said, "running like crazy."
The most serious was a dinnertime fire in the brushy canyon below Hi'ikua Place in Mililani. For a brief time it appeared to threaten homes before firefighters could stop it from spreading.
"It got a little scary," Soo said.
