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Death toll in Honolulu New Year's Eve fireworks explosion up to 4 following boy's death

David Matthews, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

The death of a 3-year-old boy on Monday raised the alarming death count to four in a massive fireworks explosion in Honolulu on New Year’s Eve.

The boy succumbed to his injuries around 1:30 a.m. local time, Honolulu police said.

The blast killed three women and injured more than 20, many of whom suffered severe burns. Six of the victims were flown to Phoenix for burn treatment over the weekend and are facing long recoveries. The lone burn center in Honolulu did not have the capacity to treat all the victims.

Dr. Kevin Foster, the director of the Arizona Burn Center, said at a news conference the victims were in their 20s and 30s and had burns on between 45% to 80% of their bodies. Most of them are in medically induced comas with breathing tubes.

“In addition to them, to the flame injuries, there were a lot of explosions and a lot of particles fly through the air. And almost everybody has multiple projectile injuries, and some of them are severe and some of them are not so severe,” Foster said.

“There’s something uniquely and particularly horrifying about being burned, especially from this type of injury,” Foster said. “And we anticipate that all of these patients are going to have some adjustment issues.”

 

Authorities said a person lit a bundle of fireworks that fell on its side, sending its explosive contents into other crates of fireworks, and setting off a chain reaction of projectiles and fire in a residential neighborhood.

“It looked like a war zone,” said Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon K. Hao.

Two of the deceased were identified as Nelie Ibarra, 58, and Jennifer Van, 23. The Honolulu Examiner’s Office has not released the identity of a third woman who died or the baby boy.

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©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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