Firecracker causes 3-hour scare in Kaaawa

Honolulu Star Bulletin ^ | Friday, September 20, 2002 | Nelson Daranciang and Crystal Kua

[Vidalia]

Police closed the Kaaawa Post Office and a restaurant next door for about three hours yesterday as the police bomb squad recovered what was later determined to be a large, commercial firecracker.

The device, about the size of a roll of nickels, had a cigarette attached that had burned out before reaching the fuse. It was on a classified newspaper rack in a corridor between the post office and Moani's Country Kitchen, said Alika Anixt, who found the object at about 9 a.m.

"First, it was, like, it was flipped over so you couldn't see the cigarette or the fuse or anything. I pulled the Penny Saver out and it flipped it. And I was like, 'Oh, wow.' And I just told everybody," she said.

Anixt called the fire department and alerted the two workers inside the post office who called police. Anixt also alerted the people in the restaurant.

Firefighters at the nearby Kaaawa Station evacuated the Swanzy Beach Park pavilion across Kamehameha Highway where 15 children were attending the Head Start preschool.

"We left the classroom and evacuated to the end of the park near the fire station," said Dorothy Mahoney, Head Start teacher.

Mahoney said she called parents to take their children home early.

A police officer and sergeant examined the object and determined that it could be an explosive device, said Capt. Richard Soo, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman.

Police then cordoned off the building and the front and back parking lots with yellow tape. The 7-Eleven store and gas station next to the post office building remained open.

By 12:13 p.m., Honolulu Police Department bomb technicians wearing protective suits had removed the firecracker.

[Vidalia]

" By 12:13 p.m., Honolulu Police Department bomb technicians wearing protective suits had removed the firecracker."

How bloody stupid, ignorant and naive.

Duh, what is the chemical makeup of basic firecracker powder?

The NEA wants a dumbed down population.

The Unions want a dumbed down population.

Well, it is surely working over here...

[Polycarp]

a cigarette attached that had burned out before reaching the fuse

Hmmm...I know of several Pennsylvania rural farm mailboxes that died a violent death several decades ago using similar sinister devices...wonder if the incidences are related?

[hoosierskypilot]

A firecracker the size of a roll of nickels?

Now, having lived in Tennessee for a lot of years where firecrackers are legal, I've never seen one as big as the article described. Firecrackers are about as big as the cap off a BIC pen.

But as big as a roll of nickels? Maybe they should have been concerned.

[DH]

Maybe you are too young to remember baby giants, cherry bombs, M-80s, bulldogs and other BIG firecrackers we use to have before the government and lawyers started protecting ourselves from oursleves.