Halloween booms in Hawaii: ‘It’s super concerning’

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Many Hawaii residents were not expecting the spookiest night of the year to also be the loudest.

Honolulu police said almost four dozen fireworks-related calls were made to 911 from 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21 to 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Ewa resident Alicia Maluafiti said the booms hardly stop, but they get a lot worse when the holidays roll around.

“I’m talking the M80’s, we’re talking mortars and the illegal aerials, we’re not talking about a little firework here, you know, a little firecracker. These are bombs that are going off that set off car alarms and shake our windows,” Maluafiti said.

She runs Poi Dogs and Popoki, a local nonprofit that finds new homes for strays and abandoned animals. Her restless pups can not get a wink of sleep when the fireworks are going off.

“I would say on average on the weekend, I’m looking at 10 to 20 bombs going off per day,” Maluafiti said. “Per day! And they don’t wait till the night time. They do it all day.”

One east Oahu resident said Kalama Valley was rocked with a boom around 8:30 p.m. Monday.

“I don’t mind the fireworks when they’re supposed to be done on the proper day, such as New Year’s Eve or July 4th, but when you have it in any other time, you can’t prepare,” Jackie said.

Honolulu City Council chair Tommy Waters had his own experience on Halloween and pointed to laws that prohibit illegal fireworks.

“And it’s been on the books for years! I live in Kaimuki,” Waters said, “last night, Halloween, I heard the bombs go off as did many of my neighbors, and it is actually shaking. It shook my whole house, and it’s super concerning!”

Legislation passed in 2019 lowered the threshold for eyewitnesses to report firework violators, but Maluafiti said the community needs to step up.

“All you need to do is know the address. Did you see, did you take video? Do you have photos? So, any of those three, if you’re either an eyewitness or you’ve got video or you’ve got photos, those three things will help in the prosecution of the violators,” Maluafiti said.

Jackie fondly thought back to when she was a little girl growing up in Hawaii Kai.

“I just remember, you know, not firing fireworks unless it was on the proper day,” she said. “Tradition is the traditional days. That’s always the argument, right? ‘It’s tradition.’ But tradition is New Year’s and Fourth of July.”