Gov. Josh Green's office said it has helped to arrange a medevac flight to send six burn victims from the New Year’s fireworks blast in Āliamanu to the continental U.S. for further medical treatment.

Hawaiʻi's only burn unit at Straub Benioff Medical Center cannot handle all of the casualties from the fatal fireworks accident.

The Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner on Friday identified two women killed as Nelie Ibarra, 58, and Jennifer Van, 23. The identity of the third woman has not yet been confirmed.

At a news conference on New Year's Day, Green emphasized the need to stop firework shows on neighborhood streets and proposed holding safe firework displays in the community.

"Love your family. Avoid this. Let us put on firework displays in the community. Let us spend the monies to have something special for our citizens, which is what we've been proposing," he said at the news conference. "I know that this is a deep and important cultural tradition to many people to have some celebration with minor fireworks on New Year's and Fourth of July, but it's taking the lives of young people."

Sen. Glenn Wakai, who represents Āliamanu and sits on the Public Safety Committee, said he thinks Hawaiʻi does not need more laws around illegal fireworks. Instead, he said the state needs better enforcement.

"I'm not a big fan of increasing penalties or making more laws. I'm a big fan of funding DLE (Department of Law Enforcement) properly and giving them the tools and resources to go after all the bad actors in our community," Wakai said.

Wakai said that he doesnʻt want to ban all fireworks. However, he added that non-permitted, non-professional fireworks need to end.

"I just say we need to put the right personnel and fund DLE properly, let them do their job. They've shown us that they can do a good job by taking, what, 200,000 pounds of fireworks off the street. They just need more personnel to be able to investigate as well as prosecute those scoundrels," Wakai said.

Law enforcement responding to the scene on Keaka Drive. (Jan. 1, 2025)Courtesy Angelina Bagaforo

Sen. Karl Rhoads, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, said that it might be more helpful to raise the penalty to a Class B felony for the importation of illegal fireworks.

"There's an awful lot of people who want to buy illegal fireworks and as a result that makes it very difficult. I think there are things that we could do. There's been a number of bills introduced in the last few years... this is a whole new level of tragedy in terms of the consequences. But it's something that many of our constituents have been complaining to us about for years," Rhoads said.

However, he said there have been various roadblocks to dealing with illegal fireworks.

"You need resources to fight. You need personnel and you need money. I have to think that this tragedy will encourage people at all levels of government to take the issue more seriously," Rhoads said.

Rhoads shared that a 2019 law pinned liability on homeowners who allow someone to use their property for illegal fireworks. Act 248 also allows photographs and videos of fireworks to be submitted as evidence in court.