New Year’s Fireworks

It was like a war zone in Hawaii early Saturday morning as the fireworks explosions continued past the midnight hour, heralding the start of a brand new year – 2011, which many hope will prove more people-friendly (and economy-friendly) than 2010 was.

Supposedly, this will be the last time that the New Year will be introduced in such a raucous fashion. As of today, a new fireworks ban goes into effect in Honolulu. You’ll still be able to buy fireworks, but only certain kinds, and only in certain quantities.

People can only buy firecrackers. No sparklers, no fountains, no paperless fireworks. And of course, no aerials, which have been illegal for some time now. You can’t buy them, you can’t sell them, and you can’t use them. Permits must be obtained -- $25 a whack and you can only get 5,000 firecrackers. If you’re really into long, loud demonstrations, you can buy as many permits as you want, but you have to get them at least 10 days before you’re going to use them.

Kids can’t fire ‘em off any more … only adults aged 18 and over.

Aerial pyrotechnics have been banned for some time now (1994), but the police says they’ll be coming down hard on the scofflaws. They promise big fines (up to $10,000) and maybe … just maybe, jail time as well (up to five years).

But y’know, I don’t see how the fireworks police are going to patrol the entire island and nab the perpetrators. That’ll be interesting, won’t it?