Six survivors with horrendous injuries are fighting for their lives following a fatal New Year’s Eve fireworks explosion in Hawaii that claimed four lives.
Four people, including a three-year-old boy, were killed from an illegal fireworks display that injured 20 others and caused ‘pure chaos’ during a New Year’s Eve celebration in the Honolulu neighborhood of Aliamanu earlier this month.
Six of those injured were life-flighted to an Arizona burn unit where they remain critical.
‘Just very, very sad – nothing I have ever seen in EMS,’ Honolulu EMS Director Jim Ireland told Hawaii News Now.
‘Some of the folk who were here who have been to war, who have been in combat, said it reminded them of things they have seen in combat.’
Abigail Allie, Kevin Vallesteros, Tommy Dao, Melissa Cabrera, Sammi Feliciano and Drew Sanbei were among those who suffered severe burn injuries from the blast.
‘Everybody is still intubated,’ Dr. Kevin Foster, the director of the hospital, told Hawaii News Now.
Two of those victims, Vallesteros and Cabrera, are new parents.
Vallesteros’s injuries require extensive medical care, including treatment for burns over 82 percent of his body and a compound fracture on his left leg, according to a GoFundMe page.
The family of Vallestero, who is still breathing with the help of a ventilator, were told that he also needs the additional help of a dialysis machine.
Meanwhile Cabrera also sustained grave injuries – their three-month-old son now being taken care of by both of their families.
Allie, a 29-year-old high school graduate and valedictorian, sustained severe injuries and burns beyond recognition, according to a GoFundMe page.
She tragically suffered burns across 67 percent of her body with a very long road to recovery ahead.
Dao, who is identified as Allie’s boyfriend, is also suffering from injuries beyond recognition with 62 percent of his body burned from the explosion.
Feliciano was also transported to Arizona to receive treatment for burns across 72 percent of his body.
Sanbei, the sixth critical patient, is being treated for burn injuries across 63 percent of his body.
All six victims have undergone surgeries to remove their burns with more surgeries planned for the near-future.
Closing the wounds and performing skin grafts are the next steps in the process for the majority of them.
However, many of them are said to be making good progress and ‘everybody is stable,’ Foster told Hawaii News Now.
Others who were injured remain in Hawaii for treatment, including Robert Ishii, who is suffering from severe burns to his hands, arms, feet, back and face, according to his GoFundMe page.
The horrifying injuries came after a large mortar-style firework tipped over just after being lit and fired sideways into crates holding additional fireworks during a New Year’s Eve celebration.
This led to the ignition of a fiery, powerful explosion that killed four people and left more than two dozen others severely wounded at a home on Keaka Drive.
Some of the injuries were so gruesome that ‘brain matter’ was left on the street.
‘In the next couple of days, it’s likely that some of the people that didn’t even look that bad will die because their lungs were burned out,’ Hawaii Governor Josh Green said, according to Hawaii News Now.
‘And that’s what you happen to see when explosions happen right in front of you.’
Minutes after the midnight explosion – which was labeled as a ‘mass casualty incident’ – emergency crews rushed to the grisly and chaotic scene.
More than a dozen ambulances responded along with medical teams who set up a triage and a special area near Salt Lake Boulevard to transport patients.
‘The truth is that people had traumatic injuries so badly that brain material was across the sidewalk from the ferocity of this explosion, and we want people to hear that because that is what is really possible with these explosive fireworks,’ Green added.
‘Some of the deceased had injuries that were tragic, that traumatic. We’re talking about the worst possible warzone injuries that took their lives.’
Honolulu residents Nick Wendrych and Adrian Montecinos filmed the rogue explosion as they celebrated on a balcony, unaware of the chaos below.
Their footage captured a sudden series of uncontrolled fireworks explosions going off at ground level in rapid succession, in contrast to those in the air.
Another video shot at ground level showed the explosions causing chaos in the streets as people ran for their lives.
The Queen’s Medical Care Center in Honolulu were overwhelmed with 20 to 25 patients coming to the facility in critical condition – roughly three times the number they typically see, Hawaii News Now reported.
‘My people and the hospital came together. It was pure chaos and people were doing things that weren’t part of their job descriptions just to help,’ Malia Eischen, The Queen’s Medical Center trauma surgeon, told Hawaii News Now.
‘It’s just such a tragedy, and just to have so many people that you are close with, friends and family all be injured at the same time, it’s devastating,’ she added.
Those with the most severe injuries were eventually flown on a C-17 military plane to Diane & Bruce Halle Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix, Arizona, for long-term care.
The hospital, which offered to take the patients as part of its commitment to providing advanced care to victims worldwide, has 50 beds and a specialized burn unit that is considered one of the largest burn centers in the country, Hawaii News Now reported.
More than 30 staff were aboard the plane – six personnel per burn victim.
The crew included military personnel from both Hawaii and the mainland, along with specialists in air transport, doctors, nurses aides and respiratory specialists.
All of those critically injured are expected to remain in Arizona anywhere from six to 12 months.
Two women were pronounced dead at the home after the blast with a third woman, 23, along with a three-year-old boy, dying shortly after.
Jennifer Van, 23, was killed from the blast alongside two sisters who were later identified as Nelie Turbalba Ibarra and Lita.
On the night of the explosion, Van had been welcoming the New Year with her friends and family when an accidental spark led to a faulty cache of fireworks to explode.
Van was with her sister and younger half-brother at the time of the disaster which occurred just after midnight, but in all of the chaos the pair were unable to find her.
‘After a desperate search and several hours of distress, my parents finally located her in a hospital, only to learn that she had sustained life-threatening injuries,’ Tammy, Van’s sister, explained in a family GoFundMe.
‘She was pronounced dead early that morning, where my parents witnessed their beautiful first born motionless, leaving us shattered and in disbelief. We are grateful for everyone who was present that day and helped out when they could.’
Aside from Van, Nelie Ibarra, 58, lost her life. She was described as having an ‘infectious laughter and boundless generosity’ that ‘touched everyone she met’, in a GoFundMe set up by her stepdaughter Ritchelyn Peterson.
In a separate GoFundMe for Lita’s family, they revealed that her son Junior ‘also sustained extensive fire-related injuries,’ and that her ‘3-year-old grandson has suffered the most extensive injuries with most of his body burned.’
In addition, Lita’s daughter Charmaine ‘Char’ Benigno, a mother-of-two, suffered ‘burns beyond recognition’.
Nelie and Lita’s neice Sheena Turalva wrote in a GoFundMe that the death of her two aunts is an ‘unimaginable tragedy and ‘heartbreaking loss’.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said his administration is now working with federal and state agencies to strengthen law enforcement and impose tougher penalties to stop the import of illegal fireworks into harbors and airports, Hawaii News Now reported.
‘This incident is a painful reminder of the danger posed by illegal fireworks. They put our lives at risk; they drain our first responders; and they disrupt our neighborhoods,’ he said.
‘We cannot allow this senseless danger to persist and we will take decisive action to ensure the safety and well-being of our Oahu residents.’
The blast was Hawaii’s deadliest fireworks incident in 14 years.