Aug. 26--Residents in Marina del Rey aren't used to much noise at night. Neighbors respectfully turn down TVs by 10 p.m., and mostly keep each other in the loop of any loud party plans.
So when a five-minute firework display lit up the sky at midnight on Tuesday, thousands of residents were left frightened. Children woke up screaming. Dogs barked feverishly. Some residents, who hadn't seen the fireworks but heard the noise, feared the worst: A terrorist attack at Los Angeles International Airport.
"I was stunned by this booming sound," Playa del Rey resident Linda Feldman said. "I had no idea what it was. The dog went into what I thought was a cardiac arrest."
Feldman peered outside her home and saw a large vessel along the breakwater as a barrage of fireworks shot into the air. She could smell the gunpowder. "Everything about this is illegal," Feldman recalled thinking.
She would later learn the ruckus came from a party thrown by Khloe Kardashian, best known for her family's long-running reality TV show "Keeping up with the Kardashians." E!Online reported the celebrity-filled bash was for James Harden's 26th birthday. Kardashian is reportedly dating the Houston Rockets shooting guard.
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Residents weren't notified about the weekday party, Feldman said, and probably would have opposed it.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents Venice and other beach communities, is demanding answers and looking for those responsible for allowing the enormous firework show. Bonin, who said the event appears tied to the Kardashian party, said the event shouldn't have been permitted and did not get a stamp of approval from the city.
"This was just a really disrespectful and insensitive thing to do," he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the event happened in open water about a mile away from the marina, despite reports from residents that it occurred 100 feet from or within the breakwater. The event passed a safety checklist typically given for events with pyrotechnics, officials said.
"This specific event did not warrant a permit," because the event occurred in open water, Petty Officer Andrea Anderson said.
Any concerns over the noise or timing of the event were supposed to be handled by the local supervising agency, which in this case would be the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Marina del Rey.
The confusion and lack of ownership over who handled the event has frustrated Bonin, and he said he will continue to press the issue.
The explosive display left many residents thinking "worst-case scenario." Bonin described it as a "ridiculous, rude and loud celebrity birthday bash."
"Folks were scared, and they then went from scared to angry," he said.
Emails between L.A. County and Coast Guard officials show that the event was sponsored by Boulevard Management. The fireworks were launched from a vessel known as the American Islander. Although the Coast Guard did not require a permit, city and county ordinances would have prohibited the event, according to the emails. But because the event happened in open water, the county had to rely on the Coast Guard to enforce or require additional approvals.
Kardashian and Boulevard Management did not return requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Feldman's 4-year-old Tibetan terrier, Sweetie, was still a little shaken by the loud fireworks, she said, but is recovering.
Feldman said she is not. Her peaceful community is in shock, and she is angry over what she called selfish behavior displayed by Kardashian and her friends.
"It's time now to set the boundaries for these folks," Feldman said. "Cause, quite frankly, there are none.
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