Civil Beat’s coverage of Hawaiʻi’s drowning crisis and the state’s deadliest fireworks disaster have been recognized with National Headliner Awards, among the nation’s oldest and largest annual journalism contests.

Reporters Megan Tagami and Caitlin Thompson received a first place for online beat reporting for their ocean safety series, which showed that — contrary to popular belief that drowning is mostly a tourism issue — half of the people dying in Hawaiʻi’s oceans are residents.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for children under 15 in Hawaiʻi and about half of the state’s children don’t know how to swim. People are regularly swept to sea by rogue waves. They die fishing or tidepooling or collecting shellfish. Yet, the reporters found, despite the alarming statistics, there have been few coordinated efforts to address the problem.

The series earned top marks for beat reporting, the judges wrote, “but it could have also been a standout for investigative or public service.”

Noting the alarming data highlighted by Tagami and Thompson, they added: “This revelatory reporting — deeply researched with real people examples — sparked the state to step up its anti-drowning push.”

In the online investigative reporting category, Civil Beat received staff recognition for an in-depth series of stories following a fireworks accident that turned a suburban Oʻahu neighborhood into a war zone just after midnight on New Year’s Eve. Stories traced the history of aerial fireworks and inadequate regulation in the state and culminated in a narrative retelling of the tragic night and the indelible mark it left on families, neighbors and first responders.

Civil Beat placed third in the category, with the top place award going to the Baltimore Banner for “Missing the Bus,” a series that revealed how Baltimore was failing public school students with its transportation system.