The deadly explosion of illegal aerial fireworks during a New Year’s Eve celebration in Honolulu Wednesday prompted official vows to crack down on the fiery displays and pleas for people to stop using the pyrotechnics that light the skies every year.

Neighbors described fireworks shooting into the eaves of a three-story home on Keaka Drive in a crowded neighborhood on Oʻahu just after midnight. Drone footage showed an eruption of pyrotechnics that blanketed the street in smoke and lit parts of the house on fire.

Windows in nearby homes shook and shattered, and picture frames fell from the walls.

And, by midday, Gov. Josh Green was at the scene of the Salt Lake tragedy calling for stiffer penalties for people who possess illegal fireworks and pleading with Hawaiʻi residents to stop setting off fireworks that have the potential to harm or kill.

“People had traumatic injuries so bad that brain material was across the sidewalk from the ferocity of this explosion,” Green said. “We want people to hear that because that is what is really possible with these explosive fireworks.”

Civil Beat Investigation: Honolulu Has Failed To Stop Illegal Fireworks For Years

One of the two women pronounced dead at the scene was found as crews combed through the debris. Another woman died after being taken away for treatment and officials suggested other victims might not survive. More than 20 people, including children as young as 3, suffered severe burns and other injuries, they said, and dozens were hit with shrapnel.

Tens of thousands of dollars in fireworks were recovered from the property, according to Police Chief Joe Logan.

The area was quickly cordoned off by yellow emergency tape, guarded by police officers. Rubble was piled in front of a burned garage at the site of the explosion with windows blown out on the floor above.

Will This Tragedy Change Behavior?

Aerial fireworks are illegal in Hawaiʻi, but they still get used every year as island residents celebrate with what officials say are increasingly fiery displays. Many people complain about the noise and air pollution, but police say they are outnumbered and hampered by restrictive laws.

Green said the deadly New Year’s Eve explosion should be a wake-up call for residents who have been unwilling to give up their fireworks as well as for lawmakers who lacked the political will to pass broader enforcement measures.

He proposed increasing penalties for possession of fireworks and said he would ask state lawmakers to make possession of 50 pounds or more of illegal fireworks a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

He also acknowledged how intractable the issue has been.

“There’s really heavy pushback against any change in laws to make it a bigger offense,” he said at a press conference. “Usually it takes something tragic like this to get the entirety of society moved to a place like enough is enough.”

Green said illegal fireworks are so commonplace on New Year’s Eve that first responders had to race past people still setting off illegal aerials on their way to Keaka Drive.

In Kalihi, a 19-year-old man died in a separate incident after suffering a severe arm injury from a fireworks blast, according to the Honolulu Emergency Service Department. Paramedics also responded to two cases of men who lost part of their hands in blasts. Two elderly patients in ʻEwa Beach were taken to a hospital with minor leg burns from fireworks.

MaryJoy Ramiro, who is deaf and spoke through an interpreter, said she was at the Salt Lake party when the explosion happened. She said people were running with their clothes burning. Others tried to douse the flames with bottled water.

Ramiro tried to console one of the victims, who she said died next to her before ambulances arrived.

“She was just lying there and then she was gone,” Ramiro said.

Logan later confirmed that the explosion happened after someone lit a cake – a rectangular firework with small tubes each with their own projectiles. The cake fell over and shot into a pile of fireworks, igniting them.

Officials have long known about the problem illegal fireworks pose to public safety in Hawaiʻi. There’s been some recent movement by law enforcement to crack down on illegal shipments. Hawaiʻi restricted aerial fireworks to public displays in 2000. The City and County of Honolulu took the additional step of banning all fireworks except firecrackers in 2011.

The owners of the home where the party took place have not been previously cited for fireworks violations nor have they been the subject of fireworks-related complaints, Logan said. Investigators from HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division and personnel from its Specialized Services Division were on scene. Logan said the case is under investigation but no citations have been issued yet.

As he surveyed the damage, Green was asked if the deaths were a wake-up moment for officials. Green said “We’re totally awake to it. But we have to convince our citizens not to do it.”

Victim Triage Shifted To Nearby Streets

Neighbor Jack Kaauwai was just walking back into his house when he heard the explosion, “looked up the street and there were bodies everywhere.”

Residents started transporting burn victims down Keaka Drive to Pākini Street to wait for ambulances. “We were checking them, making sure people didn’t doze off,” Kaauwai said.

Kaauwai’s sister, Kristal, said she held one of her neighbors whose mother died in the explosion. “I told him you don’t want to see that, you don’t want to know,” she said.

The scale of the explosion threatened to overwhelm emergency personnel, according to Honolulu Emergency Services Director Jim Ireland. He said ambulances lined up along Salt Lake Boulevard to begin transporting patients. Federal firefighters also helped transport victims in their own ambulances.

Keaka Drive became so congested with damaged cars and fire trucks that paramedics needed to stage a triage station on nearby Pākini Street. Many of the burn victims couldn’t be identified as medical personnel raced to stabilize them, Ireland said, so some may have gone to the hospital as a John or Jane Doe.

Not The First Deadly Fireworks Accident

This isn’t the first time a Hawaiʻi fireworks accident turned deadly. In 2023, a Big Island man died after being struck by a firework on the Fourth of July. Last year, seven people — three of them children — were injured in fireworks incidents on Oʻahu.

The illegal fireworks are shipped to Hawaiʻi from overseas, although local law enforcement officials know little about the exact supply chain that allows thousands of pounds of illicit fireworks onto Hawaii’s shores every year.

Proposals for inspecting shipping containers have repeatedly run into snags at the Legislature, while enforcement and inspection have been hampered because of a lack of an agency to take the lead.

Updated: A new task force created by the state Department of Law Enforcement recently stepped up to the plate. In February 2024, the group seized 24 tons of fireworks during a routine inspection. Since its creation in 2023, the task force has seized more than 200,000 pounds of fireworks.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the task force had seized more than 200,000 tons of fireworks.

Last year, state lawmakers also passed a bill expanding the law enforcement department’s authority to intercept illegal fireworks and investigate those shipping them as well as the intended receivers.

Salt Lake area resident Sherwin Ragunjan hopes officials will now do more to regulate fireworks and reduce their use.

“Hopefully the government or someone will take action because it’s illegal,” he said.