Drone shows expand as safe alternatives to fireworks

The Fourth of July holiday was relatively quiet this year — at least in Boulder, Colo., and Salt Lake City.

For the first time, those two cities hosted noiseless celebrations by launching fleets of color-changing drones to create light shows in the sky to reduce the risk of wildfires and eliminate the reverberating booms from traditional pyrotechnics.

In Hawaii, July Fourth was again marked by illegal aerial fireworks that sent smoke and explosions thundering through isle neighborhoods and resulted in the state’s second fireworks-related death of 2023.

Glen John Nakata, 20, of Kailua-Kona, suffered fatal injuries Tuesday when the fireworks “launcher” he was holding over his head went off. On Jan. 4, Kenneth Meyers, 28, of Wahiawa, died after being struck in the face by fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

Honolulu Emergency Medical Services responded to 12 fireworks-related calls of burned hands, shrapnel wounds and face injuries during the most recent New Year’s Eve, and last week’s fireworks ignited multiple brush fires, including one on Maui that burned about 50 acres.

The Kahala Hotel and Resort hosted the state’s first drone show on New Year’s Eve and plans to do it again at the end of 2023.

“We decided to use drones as a new and innovative way to celebrate the New Year as well as provide our community neighbors with an environmentally friendly show, free from smoke and loud booms,” Lyle Uehara, the hotel’s commercial director, said in an email.

Drone light shows have their own pros and cons, especially high costs when compared to traditional fireworks displays. And many doubt whether large-scale public drone shows are likely to alter the behavior of Hawaii residents who blow off illegal fireworks, often year-round.

“It doesn’t seem to me like switching these professional fireworks shows to drone shows are going to stop the knuckleheads who are setting off their own illegal fireworks,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua).

Although drone shows might replace professionally produced events, using them in local neighborhoods may bring their own problems, Keohokalole said.

“It seems like it would address the noise problem immediately, but we don’t necessarily want thousands or tens of thousands of privately operated drones to just be flying over neighborhoods without any sort of rules to protect the public,” he said.

Keohokalole said he acknowledges that fireworks are a local tradition, especially on New Year’s when the loud noise and flashes of light are said to ward off evil spirits. However, tradition can be taken only so far, he added.

Lawmakers have struggled for years to address complaints about illegal fireworks, including their impacts on pets, people with respiratory conditions such as asthma, and combat veterans with post traumatic stress disorder.

John Keala, an 82-year-old Waianae resident, said fireworks are a problem year-round in his neighborhood.

“It just keeps us up, you know,” Keala said.

In addition to noise and nuisance, he said he worries how fireworks are affecting Hawaii’s environment.

In a letter to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser published Friday, Keala wrote: “I’ve burned fireworks back in the late ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, but times have changed. Terminate local tradition, I say.”

Speaking later to the Star-Advertiser, Keala said, “I think of our children and grandchildren, and I’m thinking about the future for them.”

Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett said many residents there attend public fireworks displays rather than setting off their own. As in Hawaii, illegal fireworks are banned but enforcement is stricter in his city, he said.

“You will hear some fireworks being set off in neighborhoods, but it’s done at a relatively low level,” Brockett said. “The police are often called when it happens.”

During the 2023 session of the Hawaii Legislature, House Bill 1322, which failed to pass, would have required each county to establish a fireworks-focused enforcement unit within its police department.

“The bottom line is that it’s very difficult to regulate recklessness,” Keohokalole said. “So when people decide they want to be reckless with explosives or drones or anything, there’s always an element of danger that we have to decide whether we need to take legislative action to account for.”

While drones may not solve the problem of illegal fireworks across island neighborhoods, they’re being considered as an alternative to public pyrotechnic displays, although not in the immediate future.

The aerial fireworks show off Kailua Beach has been a popular Fourth of July event for 70 years. Switching to drone technology could be a possibility, but Jana Holden, president of Kailua Fireworks, which organizes the display, said she doesn’t have enough experience or information on the subject.

In Waikiki, there are no plans for changes to the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s weekly Friday night fireworks show. Resort spokesperson Cynthia Rankin said the cost of using drones instead of pyrotechnics would be “prohibitively expensive.”

“It’s one thing to do it on one night on New Year’s Eve, but we absolutely could not do it every single Friday,” Rankin said. “That’s not to say that down the road the technology might get more streamlined and easier. But it’s not at that point.”

Although both Boulder and Salt Lake City received positive feedback on their first drone shows, Brockett said he understands how organizers and viewers may be hesitant to abandon traditional fireworks.

“People are accustomed to fireworks displays and some people are attached to those from their childhood and such,” he said.

While Brockett was unable to provide an exact dollar amount, he said the cost of Boulder’s drone display was roughly in the “same ballpark” as staging a traditional fireworks show.

Salt Lake City’s drone show was “a bit more expensive than traditional fireworks,” according to Andrew Wittenberg, the city’s director of communications. “But it doesn’t outweigh the overtime costs we paid firefighters to be on standby or dangers to air quality and public safety.”

During Hawaii’s last legislative session, Keohokalole introduced Senate Bill 821, which was signed into law by Gov. Josh Green last month, calling for the creation of an illegal fireworks task force within the state Department of Law Enforcement to stop the importation of illegal fireworks into Hawaii.

With funding already secured, Keohokalole said the task force has a two-year deadline to come up with recommendations to curb Hawaii’s illegal fireworks problem.

“We need to fix this,” Keohokalole said.