New Year’s Eve
fires drop

Firefighters credit wet weather
for reducing numbers of
fireworks-related incidents

Wet weather gave Oahu firefighters a relatively stress-free New Year's Eve, but an 11-year-old girl was injured in Aiea by a homemade explosive.

In other incidents Friday night and early yesterday, a Kaneohe Marine was hit by a car while crossing the street near the Hawaii Convention Center, a man was injured in a drive-by shooting, two arrests were made for firing guns with no injuries, and a man and a woman were arrested for selling illegal aerial fireworks.

The Honolulu Fire Department reported 38 fireworks-related incidents through 8 a.m. yesterday, including nine medical calls, 18 rubbish fires, four Dumpster fires, two brush fires, a boat fire, a building fire and three other fires.

A fire that destroyed a vacant building at 94-053 Nawaakoa Place in Waipahu yesterday morning was apparently ignited by fireworks, but was reported after official New Year's Eve reports were totaled.

Fireworks are also suspected in a North Shore fire that damaged a two-story house under construction at 59-019 Hoalua St., before 9:17 p.m. Friday.

"If you look at the amount of brush fires, the Leeward side only had two brush fires, and normally that's one of the bigger dangers," said department spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada. "The wet weather definitely helped us, not just that it rained a couple of times in the day Friday, but there are a lot of areas that are pretty green (from earlier rains)," he said.

By comparison, in 2004, there were 133 fireworks-related fire calls; in 2003, 129; and in 2002, 176, Tejada said.

A girl playing in Kihale Street after midnight went to a hospital with lacerations to her left arm after what police believe was a home-made bomb exploded near her, police Lt. Danny Lopez said.

Pfc. Dustin G. Forington, 19, of Parker, Colo., was critically injured while crossing Kapiolani Boulevard at Atkinson Drive at 5:15 a.m. yesterday, according to police and a Marine Corps spokesman.

Police reported that speed and alcohol didn't appear to be factors on the driver's part, but that alcohol may have been a factor for Forington, who was outside of a crosswalk.

Forington was off duty in Waikiki with several other Marines early yesterday when the accident happened, said Marine Capt. Chris Perrine.

There were three incidents involving guns Friday and yesterday on Oahu, with one injury, Lopez said:

On the Big Island, firefighters responded to 18 fireworks-related calls between Dec. 26 and 8 a.m. yesterday, including 11 brush fires, several smoke calls and a bulldozer fire, according to the Hawaii County Fire Department. There were no injuries. Maui and Kauai reported no fireworks-related incidents over New Year's Eve and Day.