A ‘miracle’: Man who survived the New Year’s fireworks explosion returns to the neighborhood

ALIAMANU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Some of the less severely injured in the New Year’s fireworks blast are starting to be released from the hospital.

One of them included a man, still with visible burns and heavily bandaged arms and legs, who came straight from the hospital to see the damage to the home — and marvel at how he survived.

“I was there,” he said, pointing to the garage. “I’m a lucky survivor.”

He’s a survivor whose family asked that he remain anonymous. He had walked over to celebrate the new year with the neighbors.

“I really don’t even like fireworks. I mean, he invited me over and came over and that was it,” he said. “Everything was going well, until that, around midnight there.”

He was getting ready to leave and watch the fireworks from his house when the explosions occurred:

“So maybe about five to 12 I look at my phone. All of a sudden, boom. Everything happened. I just remember I’m on the ground. And somehow, I don’t know how I got up. I got up and I got out of there,” he said.

“It was a miracle I got out of there.”

He said the blast threw him to the back of the garage, which may have saved his life.

“I didn’t even know what hit me. It was just ‘boom, boom!’ — and I’m up and I’m walking down the street like a zombie.”

He was among those driven to the hospital for serious burns and other injuries. While he survived, he’s aware that lives were lost, and said he’s already cried several times. He believes it’s a miracle that he walked away from the disaster, and that he’s able to walk back on his own two feet.

When asked if he considered himself to be lucky, he replied, “Yes. Very lucky.”

Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.