An explosion that could be heard across several blocks of Bremerton's Manette neighborhood Sunday afternoon killed a man in his mid-20s, according to the Bremerton Fire Department.
According to Bremerton Fire, the sequence began with Bremerton Police patrol units, who were the first on scene after reports of a loud explosion audible in surrounding blocks of Manette shortly before 5 p.m.
Under the Child Protection Act of 1966, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has classified M-80s, M-100s, quarter sticks and cherry bombs as banned hazardous substances , and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms treats them as "Forbidden Explosives," not as a fireworks category at all.
Unlike the fireworks chapter's misdemeanor tiers, a violation of that licensing requirement is a class C felony, a far more serious classification than anything Chapter 70.77 provides for.
Bremerton's code explicitly bars aerial devices (Roman candles, reloadable mortars, bottle rockets, skyrockets) and names M-80s specifically among the banned categories, restricting legal purchases to hand-held or ground-based "common fireworks" like fountains and sparklers, bought only from licensed sellers.
A man in his mid-20s died when an illegal M-80, a device banned as an explosive since 1966, detonated in a Manette garage Sunday, Bremerton Fire says.