Permits dim fireworks' glare
| • | Kailua community credits hired patrol |
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
New firecracker permit laws worked to reduce noise, smoke, injuries and police calls during New Year's Eve celebrations on O'ahu, according to all available indicators yesterday.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Honolulu sold 4,401 of the $25 permits which were required to purchase up to 5,000 firecrackers, 32 percent less than the 6,427 permits sold last year.
Fireworks lit the sky around Honolulu on New Year's Eve, but smoke, noise and injuries showed a substantial decline.
The Honolulu Police Department said it received 790 fireworks-related calls between the day after Christmas and the day after New Year's, about 29 percent fewer calls than last year.
Three adults and one juvenile were cited by police for fireworks violations, compared to nine adults cited and one adult and one juvenile arrested last year.
The only fatality remotely connected with fireworks was an accident in which a Waialua man who was hanging fireworks fell from a five-foot wall and hit his head on a rock, police said.
The Emergency Services Department, which runs ambulance operations, said "only a handful" of its 478 calls in two days were fireworks-related. Only two individuals — one in Pearl City with an eye injury and another in Kailua having difficulty breathing — were taken to hospitals.
Douglas Yee, president of the American Lung Association's Hawaii chapter, said friends told him air quality was much better this year.
But Yee said he drove around Honolulu close to midnight and saw significant pockets of air pollution all over town, possibly caused by fireworks other than firecrackers.
"I don't think we have eliminated the problem," Yee said.
State Deputy Health Director Gary Gill was preparing to release results of air monitoring today.
Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Kenison Tejada said fire department calls appeared to have increased slightly this year over last, but it was not clear if fireworks were part of the increases.
There were 15 fireworks-related calls on New Year's Eve, but some of another 14 undetermined cases might have involved fireworks, he said.
Tejada said a depressed economy and reluctance to use fireworks since the Sept. 11 attacks may also have contributed to the decline.
But Jerry Farley of American Promotional Events, one of the larger fireworks suppliers for the state, said there was a nationwide uptick in fireworks use this year in a post-Sept. 11 burst of patriotism.
That did not change the overall trend in Hawai'i, however, Farley said. Firecracker sales by his firm in Hawai'i went down more than 30 percent after the law went into effect in 2000, and this year still remained 25 percent lower than before the law was made.
Americans will probably get out of the firecracker importing business next year, Farley said.
He predicted firecracker use will continue to decline until it reaches a bedrock of traditional cultural users in Hawai'i, a state that he said probably buys 20 percent of the legal firecrackers sold in America.
But Farley warned that the firecracker permit fee could eventually lead to a black market in firecrackers.
Some retailers are pulling out of the business because of declining sales and also because each site must pay a $500 fee to the city instead of the old $100 fee.
And wholesalers also are leaving the Hawai'i market because wholesale permit fees have been increased from $110 to $3,000, said Honolulu Fire Battalion Chief Ken Silva of the fire prevention bureau.
Most Neighbor Islands reported similar trends.
Big Island police Lt. Kenneth Vierra said there were fewer injuries and fires. "It was a good New Year's here," said Vierra.
Fire officials agreed.
Kaua'i fire Capt. Dennis Aquino said there seemed to be fewer fireworks exploded on Kaua'i than in previous years. The department issued 416 permits, down from 626 last year.
Aquino said some stores seemed to have smaller stocks, and ran out and that may have deterred people from buying non-refundable permits.
He said there were seven small brushfires on New Year's Eve, three on New Year's Day, and no major incidents.
Maui may have been the exception in fireworks permits. Lt. Scott English of Maui Department of Fire Control's Fire Prevention Bureau said more permits were sold in Wailuku this year than last; numbers from other stations were still being tallied.
English said officials are looking into whether a roof fire that caused $50,000 damage to a retail complex at 505 Front Street at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday was caused by fireworks.
There were a handful of other minor fireworks-related complaints on Maui, but no arrests or injuries.
Advertiser staff writers Christie Wilson, Hugh Clark and Jan TenBruggencate contributed to this report.
