AP – Emergency crews arrived to a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighbourhood in Hawaii, United States (US) after a large New Year’s firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people and injured more than 20 others, several of them critically.
Two women died at the scene and a third woman died at a hospital, authorities said on Wednesday as they implored people to abandon their New Year’s tradition of setting off fireworks across the city. Officials promised tougher penalties for illegal fireworks.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green graphically described the deaths in a news conference Wednesday to emphasise the potential danger of fireworks. “We’re talking about the worst possible, war-zone injuries that took their lives.”
Some of the more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and shrapnel wounds included children, said officials who had not yet publicly identified any victims including those killed.
Police were investigating whether charges for the person who lit the firework near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan said.
The blast happened at a three-story home with a bottom-level carport.
Piles of debris including bundles of blackened firework mortars could be seen in front of the house in Wednesday’s daylight.
The explosion broke windows across the street. It happened when a lit bundle of aerial, mortar-style fireworks called a “cake” tipped over or fell off a table and fired sideways into crates containing additional fireworks, which then exploded.
