Fil-Am toddler, family members killed in Hawaii fireworks explosion

Photo from WKRG/X

 Three Filipino Americans, including a 3-year-old boy, were killed and several others were injured in a recent massive fireworks explosion in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The boy, identified as Cassius Ramos-Benigno, succumbed on Jan. 6 to injuries from the tragic incident at a Honolulu home on New Year’s Eve.

A 3-year-old boy who died Monday was the fourth person to succumb to injuries from a massive explosion of fireworks on New Year’s Eve at a Honolulu home. https://t.co/RlxAr9CE2q

— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) January 7, 2025

Also killed at the scene on Keaka Drive in Aliamanu were the boy’s grandmother, Carmelita Turalba Benigno, Benigno’s sister Nelie Turalba Ibarra, 58, and Jennifer Van, 23.

In a GoFundMe for the Benigno family, it was revealed that the Fil-Am toddler “suffered the most extensive injuries with most of his body burned.”

Among those injured were Carmelita Benigno’s son, Junior, and daughter Charmaine ‘Char’ Benigno, a mother-of-two, who suffered “burns beyond recognition,” the GoFundMe page said.

A GoFundMe for Charmaine stated that her three young sons and partner “really need her home!”

Authorities said six survivors were facing long recoveries in Arizona, where they were sent to be treated for severe burns, authorities said.

They were flown by the US military to Phoenix for treatment on Saturday because Hawaii’s lone burn unit doesn’t have enough capacity to care for all the victims.

After the disaster, Hawaii’s leaders intensified their oft-repeated calls to crack down on the state’s vast illegal fireworks trade with stepped-up enforcement and greater penalties.

Shortly before the incident, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green warned the public about fireworks, saying in a press conference that “there is likely going to be one or two children under age 10 that will be either forever disfigured or dead in the coming hours.” 

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What caused the fireworks explosion in Hawaii 

“It appears that shortly after midnight, a person who attended the party lit an aerial cake, which is a container containing multiple aerial fireworks, in the driveway,” Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said.

“The cake fell to the side and the aerial shot into crates that contained additional fireworks.”

 Gov. Green described the tragic aftermath as “an extraordinarily grotesque scene that looked like a war zone.”

The Aliamanu neighborhood showed their support by creating a makeshift memorial near the site, where residents left flowers and messages of sympathy.

The injured victims receiving treatment at the Arizona Burn Center are all in their 20s or 30s and have extensive burns, Dr. Kevin Foster, the center’s director said at a news conference streamed online.

Each of the six is using a breathing tube and five are in medically induced comas.

Foster said it will be six months to a year before any are able to return to anything resembling a normal life. Four patients will likely have to remain intubated and in a coma for weeks, he said. (With AP report)