Hawai'i welcomes New Year
| • | Sports: UH men's volleyball top sports story of 2002 |
| • | Opinion: A new year, a new chance to succeed |
| • | What's open and closed today |
By Karen Blakeman and Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writers
Honolulu was geared up for a sparkly, noisy, smoky welcome for 2003 last night, and it appeared there would be more fire calls than last year.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
A last-minute surge of fireworks permits sales had made officials apprehensive.
Fireworks light Waikiki's night sky with vivid colors during a display at Halekulani this morning.
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Richard Soo, surprised at the sharp increase over the previous year, speculated that many residents may have run out of stockpiled firecrackers from the Fourth of July 2000, the last opportunity to buy firecrackers without the new permits.
At 10 p.m. last night, HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada reported 65 fires on O'ahu, at least 49 of them related to fireworks. That number did not include the numerous brush fires and rubbish fires after the fire department stopped counting. It also did not include a two-alarm fire at a large, two-story house on Aloha Oe Drive in Maunawili.
No one was home when that fire struck, Tejada said. The homeowner was away on the Mainland. Damage was extensive and included most of the top floor.
Firefighters had not determined last night whether fireworks were involved.
By 10 p.m., there were 18 medical calls for people having difficulties with breathing.
"We're not attributing (the breathing problems) directly to the fireworks," Tejada said, adding that the department had handled 69 medical calls by that time, nine of which involved auto or other accidents.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Mandy Shiraki of Emergency Medical Services said many of the ambulance calls last night seemed to be assaults.
Kiana Mae Colbert, 2, plays with her first sparkler at her great-grandmother's house in Nu'uanu. She indicated it may be her last.
"Minor stuff," he said. "People drinking and fighting."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said that by noon yesterday, satellite city halls had sold 5,924 of the $25 permits required to purchase up to 5,000 firecrackers for use New Year's Eve.
With permit sales continuing until 4 p.m., there was a good chance the number sold would exceed the 6,427 sold at New Year's in 2000, the first year of the permit system.
The city last year sold 4,401 of the permits. That was 32 percent fewer than the number sold in 2000.
The Fire Department put out four building fires, three of them caused by fireworks. Officials believe a house fire at 4562 Kahala Ave. was caused by an electrical malfunction in the dining room, Tejada said.
The Red Cross helped a family of three find temporary lodging, as well as food and clothes.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Six vehicles caught fire last night, two from fireworks in Windward and Leeward areas, he said.
Jordon Zamora of Waikele twirls a Magic Whip as he visited relatives in the Lopez family in Kalihi last night.
Firefighters responded to 31 brushfires, 26 of which were caused by fireworks, Tejada said. Twenty-four rubbish fires were extinguished by fire crews and 18 were fireworks related, he said.
The number of fire calls for the day was closing in on last year's New Year's Eve total by 10 p.m., Tejada said.
"We're way ahead of last year's pace," he said. "And the busiest time is yet to come."
A cloud of smoke sat over Kane'ohe shortly before midnight, and a steady report of fireworks was occasionally punctuated by the whistle of an aerial.
Abe Tengan partied with his family on Mokulele Drive, shooting off fireworks they bought at Costco. He said that because of the permit system, he thought there were fewer fireworks being shot off than previous years.
"Usually," he said. "It's like a war zone."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
A few houses away, Karen Hashimoto and her family lit sparklers and crackling balls. The firecracker string they bought with their permit, she said, would be saved until exactly midnight.
Children play with sparklers at the Sun Yat Sen Mall near the Chinese Cultural Plaza last night.
The fireworks are an important part of an annual tradition, she said, a means of chasing away bad spirits. But the most important part would come after midnight, when the family ate the annual good luck soup, and went to temple to pray.
Amid the early evening celebrations, things were popping around Honolulu.
On Davenport Street in Makiki, 15-year-old Wayson Haberman shot off a Crackling Ground Flower in the parking lot of his apartment building. He said he had no plans to go out to celebrate the New Year.
"I'm just gonna pop," he said.
A few doors down in the 1100 block of Davenport, Gimmie Kark was setting off fireworks with about a half-dozen children, one of whom was his daughter.
"Bang!" he said as he lit a little girl's sparkler with a cigarette lighter. A neighbor woman came downstairs with a candle.
"My husband has the extinguisher upstairs," she said "He's bringing it down now."
