Senate committees advance package of fireworks bills setting inspections, permit caps and stronger penalties

The Hawaii State Senate’s joint committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and on Transportation and the Culture and the Arts advanced a suite of bills on Feb. 5 aimed at tightening oversight, inspections and penalties for illegal fireworks.

Chair Lee moved and the committees voted to pass SB 12‑26 with amendments to establish a shipping‑container inspection program for fireworks, remove the word “explosives” from provisions at the Attorney General’s recommendation, require risk‑based and random inspections, task the Department of Law Enforcement (DLE) and Department of Transportation (DOT) to identify secure off‑port inspection sites and set the program to begin as soon as practicable but no later than July 1, 2027. “We would have to take the point … we want to become the lead state agency,” said Mike Lambert, director nominee for the Department of Law Enforcement, when asked who would coordinate inspections and interagency response.

The committees also passed SB 302 with amendments that restrict consumer fireworks to cultural uses by permit and add a cap of up to five permits per person; the chair changed the effective date to July 1, 2025. Gary Lum, testifying for the State Fire Council, warned of public‑safety risks, saying an individual in Honolulu had bought about 1,000 permits that allowed purchase of roughly 5,000,000 firecrackers, raising questions about storage and hazards.

SB 13‑24, which broadens definitions and heightens penalties for fireworks offenses and establishes an adjudication system, was advanced with proposed Attorney General changes. Deputy Attorney General Tricia Nakamatsu told the committee the department “strongly supports this bill” and urged a technical addition detailed in written testimony to close an enforcement gap.

Not all testifiers supported stricter rules. Ernesto Sani Ganathan, deputy public defender, argued the bills risk creating overlapping civil and criminal tracks from the same conduct and raised constitutional concerns, saying the office opposed parts of the package. Industry witnesses including Tad Trout of TNT Fireworks and representatives of licensed pyrotechnic firms warned that restrictive permit rules could push consumers toward illegal products and that some provisions could unintentionally exclude licensed commercial displays.

On enforcement capacity and cost, DLE representatives said disposal, storage and laboratory testing are expensive. DLE reported prior disposal of 140,000 pounds of illegal fireworks cost roughly $1,000,000; officials described vendor costs of about $1,000,000 per container if removed from state. For a proposed enforcement division and lab, DLE provided a staffing plan of eight positions (seven investigators, one clerk) with a first‑year cost cited at roughly $5,000,000 and a second‑year cost near $2,200,000.

The Senate Committee on Public Safety then conducted separate action on additional bills: it recommended passing SB 2‑27 (establishing an Illegal Fireworks Enforcement Division) as requested and passing SB 222 (extension of the illegal fireworks task force) as is; the committee deferred SB 476 for further consideration because its penalties overlapped with other measures.

Next steps: the measures passed in committee will proceed to additional committee review or the Ways and Means committee as noted in committee reports. Several witnesses asked for technical fixes and carve‑outs for licensed commercial displays; committees left room for amendments as bills move forward.