{"id":818855,"date":"2026-05-24T11:19:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/818855\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T11:19:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:19:41","slug":"worker-killed-in-nyc-shipyard-blast-was-trapped-in-boats-belly-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/818855\/","title":{"rendered":"Worker killed in NYC shipyard blast was trapped in boat’s belly, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man killed in an explosion at a Staten Island shipyard<\/a> was a hard-working Chinese immigrant who died when he became \u201ctrapped\u201d in the belly of a boat while painting, his family said Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Xiaoyuan Li, of Flushing, was finishing his last day of work for May Ship Repair on the dry dock in Mariners Harbor before a planned weekend trip with his wife, son Jerome Li told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom called me and said that my dad\u2019s coworker called the police and said that my dad is trapped inside of the boat,\u201d Li said from the family\u2019s Queens home.<\/p>\n

Jinhua Liu, the wife of Xiaoyuan Li \u2014 who died in a blast in Mariners Harbor on Staten Island \u2014 wants answers. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd after 45 minutes there was an explosion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Friday afternoon blast left 30 people hurt, including two firefighters, one of whom was in critical condition, officials said. The cause was under investigation.<\/p>\n

After the fire started, the 57-year-old\u2019s coworkers picked up his mom, Jinhua, 53, and brought her to the dry dock, but the situation was dire, said Jerome, who rushed to the scene in an Uber. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A supervisor told the family they had to \u201cwait out the report and see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was desperate, crying,\u201d said the heartbroken 22-year-old, who just graduated from college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in shock,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought there might be hope. When I got there they said no one had died yet but that my dad is still not found. I\u2019m sad. I try not to cry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirty people were injured in the fire and explosion, including two firefighters, one of whom was in critical but stable condition. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The victim who was killed was a painter who was trapped in what was essentially the ship\u2019s basement, his family said. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

His father immigrated from Yanbian, a Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China that borders North Korea, around 10 years ago, his son said, for a better life for their family.<\/p>\n

He had been working for the ship repair company for about four years.<\/p>\n

The father would start his day at 4 a.m., often not arriving home until 5 p.m.\u00a0His wife started the days with him, making him a breakfast of tofu and packing him a lunch, their son said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working hard and taking care of the family,\u201d the son said. \u201cHe works so early and it\u2019s hard work at the shipyard. Every day he\u2019s really tired when he gets back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family said they has not received his body and no representatives from May Ship Repair have contacted them since the fatal blast.
Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

And his dad knew the work was dangerous, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the only guy down there working in the basement,\u201d the son said. \u201cThere should be a safeguard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family said no one from May Ship Repair has reached out to them.<\/p>\n

Daughter-in-law Joy Li, 24, (pictured) went to the shipyard with Li\u2019s son. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom wants to know the reason this happened,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a heartbreaking moment,\u201d said the son, who earned a degree in photography. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just graduated two days ago, it\u2019s a new chapter in my life. It was the last day he worked, my parents were just about to have a trip.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man killed in an explosion at a Staten Island shipyard was a hard-working Chinese immigrant who died…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":818856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,15582,6525,4216,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,9294,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-818855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-explosions","tag-fdny","tag-fires","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116629285523124532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}