Above: Looking for the Coupeville Ferry
In The News
Man killed in North Whidbey explosion was building ‘explosive devices’ for fireworks show
June 19, 2025
South Whidbey Record
Officials ID victim ‘handling explosive devices’ in deadly Whidbey Island fire
by Jackie Kent,KOMO News
June 19, 2025
ATF report IDs ‘blast seats’ in fatal explosion
December 16, 2025
South Whidbey Record
June 2026 – Whidbey Island
FOX 13 Seattle
KOMO News
KING 5 News
KIRO 7 News
700-pound firework stash:
700 pounds of fireworks at center of fire, explosion investigation
June 26, 2026
Whidbey News-Times
“About 700 pounds of fireworks were inside the home on Smugglers Cove Road, according to Kolton Kellison, a firefighter with Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue. A “large explosion” shortly after firefighters arrived, threw one “into a truck” and knocked another to the ground, he said.”
“Firework deliveries to her neighbor’s home have drawn Hernandez and her neighbors’ attention in the past. A truck dropped off pallets of fireworks there this time last year, Hernandez said, and she learned on Thursday that four pallets had been dropped off more recently. Another resident on that street, Carol Lewellen, saw a pallet delivered earlier on Wednesday.”
“The Greenbank fire was not the first fireworks-related house fire on Whidbey Island. On June 17, 2025, North Whidbey resident Mark Fakkema was killed in an explosion that destroyed his parents’ Strawberry Point Road home. According to the Island County Sheriff’s Office and a federal ATF investigation, Fakkema had been dismantling commercial-grade fireworks in his kitchen to make his own devices.”
Away From Whidbey
Celebrating freedoms:
The post 911 surveillance state (fusion centers, license scanners, Homeland Security grant money, monitoring of e-mails, text messages, & social media sites, no fly/terror watch lists, tracking of cell phones, best advances in REAL ID and AI technologies, etc.) appear to have played no role in preventing the crimes described above.