Three dead, 26 injured in Hawaii fireworks explosion

This is absolutely horrific.
People were shooting off some of the big boomer fireworks at a neighborhood block party in a Honolulu suburb when a massive multi-shot cake tipped over. It shot into a huge cache of other fireworks they had for the party and set them off, basically creating a bomb.

 

Says it was an illegal cache but maybe one cop in 50 will even bother investigating fireworks complaints, and fewer than that at New Year’s or the 4th. Maybe this changes that, at least on the islands.

 

I loves me some Big Ass Explosions™, but prefer them in an open field and not basically off your balcony in the parking lot below. A possible case of Darwin in action.

 

When I was taking a year off college, I worked in a video store in Akron, Ohio - the period that "Clerks" was out, so I can identify. Who knows? I might have rented videos to a youthful LeBron James. Got robbed at gunpoint there once too, but I got videos for free. It was fun!

Anyway, one of the managers in this local chain clearly had burn scars over most of his body. One day, I got the courage to ask one of the longer-term employees what the deal was.

"Well, he doesn't like people to know about it, but he got burned in a fireworks accident."

Really? That's tragic.

"Well, yeah, but it happened because he and a buddy were drinking and smoking weed in a fireworks warehouse. He said he smoked a spliff and threw it away forgetting where they were. The still-lit spliff lit up a box and then the place exploded."

I was in the presence of near-Darwin Award greatness.

 

Law enforcement is not going to stop it, people need to stop.

About fireworks in an open field, parents lived on an acre with an open field, HOWEVER it was 4th of July45 yrs ago and dead weeds. Family gathering of about 25 and decide to shoot bottle rockets and it’s fun UNTIL one decides to go up then turn downward and blow off two feet from ground. Immediate bonfire. Flames appear to be 10 ft high and I’m thinking house is gone. We all grab sho and water hoses and somehow put it out. Whew!! Never again.

 

Sorry to say this, but it seems the use of illegal fireworks has become aligned with a person’s politics — just like every other aspect of life in the U.S. over the past decade or so.

Believe me — I lived in the bloody red heart of Trumpdom, North Idaho, from 2009-21. When we first moved there, you heard plenty of fireworks on July 4, New Year’s Eve and the occasional Seahawks Super Bowl victory, but not much different than I recalled growing up in the Midwest.

By the time we moved out in 2021, it was part of living the MAGA lifestyle to launch as many fireworks as possible, as often as possible, and to defiantly leave the debris behind for someone else to deal with. The more pet owners, PTSD-affected veterans, wildfire prevention advocates and environmentalists complained about it, the better.

 

Meh. There’s some of that being true. You can’t tell me what to do and it’s kind of a redneck country thing. But in my town, it crosses lines. Suburban country wannabes and Hispanics and people who just know they can get away with it. People are threatened with fines but it does nothing. Every July 4, my city looks like the first Iraq War.

 

Have you seen those aerial videos of big cities on the Fourth of July? I don’t think all those fireworks over the inner cities of LA, Chicago and NYC are lit by guys in MAGA hats.

 

Outing alert: @Spartan Squad is the Scud Stud.

 

I wish I could pull off that leather jacket … in a desert …

(Also I was 7 during Desert Storm so I had to look up who that was)

 

I'm with you here. Our neighborhood is full of Thin Blue Line/just do what you're told and you'll be fine dummies who light the whole fucking place on fire every July 4. In 2021, they were defiant that nobody was gonna tell them they couldn't blow shit up cuz merica. One of these years they will blow the whole fucking place up, which is why we always make sure to be away on July 4. I will say they clean up after themselves, but it's a disgusting war zone here for a few days following the 4th.