Illegal fireworks blast in Honolulu kills 3

Each New Year’s Day, Honolulu officials publish a list of illegal fireworks casualties from the night before, typically a litany of burns, shrapnel wounds or amputations. This year it was much worse after a lit bundle of mortar-style aerial rockets tipped over and shot into crates of unlit fireworks at a private home, causing a rapid-fire series of blasts that killed three women and injured more than 20 people, including children. With increasingly sophisticated displays, the illegal fireworks have become more common in the city.

Class discussion: Have you or anyone in your family ignited fireworks? Do you know anyone who has been injured by fireworks? Americans spend more than $2 billion a year on fireworks, and thousands of them end up in emergency rooms. A few die. Should untrained amateurs handle more than 270 million pounds of often dangerous explosives every year? Why or why not? Why are more people trying to put on their own displays instead of going to firework shows by professionals? Where do nearly all these fireworks come from?