LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte – A 37-year-old man lost four fingers in his right hand in a firecracker explosion in Barangay 34-A, Gabu Norte, this city, during the New Year’s Eve revelry.

Barangay Chairwoman Glenda Raquinio said the victim lighted the black bomb firecracker and threw it but failed to explode immediately.

The man retrieved it and used a flashlight to look for it. He finally found and picked it up and the firecracker exploded, severely injuring his right hand.

The victim was taken to the Laoag City General Hospital.

Raquinio said that based on her conversation with the victim’s sibling, the firecracker was ordered from an unidentified source. The device, she noted, is similar in appearance to a whistle bomb.

She said that no residents in the barangay are using dynamite and local officials warned residents against using illegal explosives.

Meanwhile, Police Major Divina Albino of the Police Regional Office-1 reported that only two firecracker-related injuries were recorded in Ilocos Norte during the New Year celebration.

Albino added that authorities confiscated 4,234 assorted illegal firecrackers worth P206,930 in Region 1 during the holiday season.

Fireworks-related injuries in the Ilocos region declined by 2.3 percent with 170 cases recorded from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1, compared to 174 cases during the same period in 2024.

Data from the Department of Health-Ilocos region (DOH-1) Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit showed that most injuries were caused by illegal firecrackers such as whistle devices, Kwitis, Boga, and unlabeled firecrackers.

Children aged 10 to 14 accounted for the largest number of victims at 20.6 percent while the majority of those injured were male at 82.9 percent.

Hospitals under the DOH remain under Code White status until Jan. 6 to ensure continuous monitoring of fireworks-related injuries under ‘’Oplan: Iwas Paputok.’’