A 44-year-old man in Barangay Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City died early on New Year’s Day after a "five-star" firecracker exploded and injured him fatally in the head.

Witnesses said the victim was attempting to create an improvised bomb shell outside his rented home.

He threw a five-star firecracker that failed to detonate but when he approached it to take a close look, it exploded suddenly.

“Nakita namin si Kuya, nagpapaputok. Akala namin nadulas siya. ‘Yun pala may tama siya. Sinilip niya pa, tumama ‘yung paputok sa kanya rito. Hindi naman namin alam na naputukan na agad,” Leonard Bautista, a witness, said.

The incident occurred at around 12:20 a.m.

The victim was rushed to the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) but was declared dead by 3 a.m. due to a skull fracture.

“Madami kasi siyang sinindihan na five-star, then ‘yun ‘yung nag-cause ng lacerated wound niya dito sa area. May kasama din kasing fracture, skull fracture. Siguro, nabagok din,” Camille Navarro, Assistant Manager for Operations at R1MC, said.

The victim was the 18th patient injured by firecrackers brought to R1MC since December 20, 2024.

Among the patients, an eight-year-old boy from San Fabian is the youngest victim. He was injured by a "boga" firecracker on December 30, 2024.

In Pangasinan, Dagupan City recorded the most number of firecracker injuries with nine cases, followed by San Fabian with four, and San Carlos City and Mangaldan with two cases each.

Despite these incidents, the total number of cases is lower than the 34 recorded last year.