MANCHESTER, NH – A 5-year-old child, hospitalized in Boston after being severely injured in a three-alarm blaze on New Year’s Day, has died.
According to the NH State Fire Marshal, Khloe Laka was pronounced dead at a Boston hospital on Jan. 7, 2026, where she was being treated since the Jan. 1 fire.
An autopsy was completed Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and results remain pending. All other individuals who suffered injuries as a result of the Jan. 1 fire have been discharged.
Khloe Laka is the second person to die from injuries sustained in the 567 Union St. fire which displaced about 50 people. Thomas J. Casey, 70, died of smoke inhalation that morning. Four other people also were hospitalized.
The fire was reported at 12:36 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Alison Mueller started a GoFundMe page for the family of which Khloe was the eldest child. Mueller was her godmother and is godmother to her other siblings, Kenny, 4, and Kylie, 14 months.
On the GoFundMe page, Mueller said Khloe’s mother Clemence Kilondo Laka, whose nickname is “Clemmy,” and the three children were asleep in their fourth-floor apartment on New Year’s when the fire broke out on the third floor. Her husband, Laka Ayilisungu, was not home at the time.
Two men, attending midnight New Year’s Eve Mass at the nearby Ukranian church, heard screams and rushed to the scene. From the fourth-story balcony, Clemmy tossed her children to them and then jumped.
“God put people in the right place at the right time,” Dmitriy Ilyuk told WMUR-TV. Ilyuk and his uncle, Anatoliy Ilyuk, heard yelling, and ran to help when they saw the flames.
“We all were just standing close and we were holding [our hands out] and, but it’s hard to see. It’s smoke. It’s dark,” Dmitriy Ilyuk told WMUR.
On one of the balconies was Clemmy, a young pregnant mother, Anatoliy said, with her children. The mother threw her toddler off the balcony, and a woman caught the child, with the help of Dmitriy.
“We stood and we said, ‘hey, just toss. We have no choice. We have to catch,'” Dmitriy Ilyuk said.
The mother threw another child down, a boy, and then she jumped. According to both men, the mother was screaming because she had to leave her child behind in the bedroom.
Mueller said she came to know “this wonderful family through my parish last year, helped them enroll in a school, and in the spring I became the godparent to all three children.”
Mueller hopes to raise $60,000 to help the family displaced from their home, “without any belongings, facing uncertain medical and health challenges, the birth of a child and now bearing the cross of burying a child, I have set up this page to help offset expenses, provide relief, buy necessities, assist with travel and funeral costs, and to ultimately help them get re-established and heal.”
She asked everyone to pray for the family “during this unimaginable time.”
As of 7 p.m. Friday, a little more than $50,000 was donated. On Saturday a non-profit organization out of Derry, the Viviana Irene Leon Memorial Fund, announced it was covering funeral costs for Khloe, “a small gesture we hope allows her family to focus on healing, recovery, and being together during this unimaginable time,” according to a post on their Facebook page.
“Thank you so much for the prayers, monetary and item donations, and more,” Mueller wrote. “Your generosity is deeply moving. I was able to visit with the family yesterday and they are grateful for the outpouring of support.”
She then wrote of Khloe’s passing, “On behalf of Laka and his family, and with trust in Our Lord, I am writing to share that the family’s eldest daughter, Khloe, has died. May she see the Lord face to face, and may He bring comfort to those in sorrow,” she wrote. “Please continue to pray for the family during this time of grief, healing, and rebuilding.”
Multiple people were trapped on balconies and at windows when firefighters arrived on scene New Year’s Day. By then, Clemmy had already jumped. Fire crews used ground ladders and an aerial bucket truck to rescue others.
Fire officials have yet to say how the fire started although investigators believe it began in a bedroom in a third-floor apartment. The building manager, who declined to give her name, told Manchester Ink Link that it was believed to have started in an electrical appliance.
The City continues to work closely with community partners to ensure all impacted residents are being connected to housing, financial assistance, and stabilization services, according to a fire department news release issued earlier this week.
These same support resources are also available to residents displaced by a separate apartment fire that occurred on the morning of Jan. 5, 2026, at 305 Amherst Street, which resulted in the displacement of 18 residents. There were no reported casualties in that blaze.
City officials said all registered families are currently eligible or are already receiving:
- Financial support
- Daily meals
- Placement assistance, with multiple agencies actively working to secure permanent housing.
Residents who were displaced by the fire and have not yet registered or are in need of housing and support services are encouraged to contact the American Red Cross directly.
If you have not yet come forward, or if you are unable to access services on your own, please call: 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) The American Red Cross can help connect residents to emergency assistance, housing support, and partner agencies.
This relief effort is a coordinated collaboration between the Mayor’s Office, Office of Homelessness Initiatives, Manchester Fire Department, Manchester Housing, Manchester Welfare Department, the American Red Cross of Northern New England, Choice Realty, and the First Baptist Church.