"Just last Monday [6/2/03 -ed.] I was sitting at my kitchen table working on title blocks.

"Suddenly my whole house shook and I heard a large exploding sound. I thought for sure a tree had landed on my house. However, when I looked out my patio door, I saw that my friend and neighbors' house had exploded.

"I grabbed the phone and called 911 and headed out the door. When I got to his yard, I yelled his and his girlfriends names, but got no response.

"The 911 dispatcher was still on the phone with me, and I kept describing what I was seeing. What was once was a fine home, now was a pile of rubble. Suddenly my neighbor came stumbling out from the back of the wreckage. He had severe 3rd degree burns on his head, arms and chest, and all of his head and facial hair had been frizzled down like plastic. Much of his skin was hanging off in loose sheets.

"I asked him what happened, and he said he was lighting his water heater. I relayed this to the dispatcher, and his condition. He was in a panic to find his girlfriend, as well as was I.

"As we started looking through the rubble the first responder arrived. (Our local fire chief was working just 2 blocks away). At that point smoke began to billow out of the center of the wrecked house, and our panic began to increase. Before long flames were shooting skyward. Suddenly my injured neighbor spotted his girlfriend lying underneath some rubble in the front yard. The fire chief quickly began clearing the rubble away, exposing her body, but it was far too late, as she was killed, probably instantly, in the explosion.

"At this point the injuries to my neighbor caught up with him, and he went down, just as the first paramedics arrived. The wreckage very quickly turned into an inferno. Soon the neighborhood was filled with fire crews, medics, police and sheriffs, and remained that way for the rest of the day.

"I was interviewed by firemen, sheriffs, DCI, and the ATF, as well as the local media. Later that night, the fire chief came over and talked with me. He said that in this case, they (the fire crews, sheriffs, and fire marshals) had closure on this explosion. In the course of their investigation, they had located a cut in the propane line leading to the house. The cut was underground, and propane from his tank had seeped into the basement.

"Although they couldn't be sure what triggered the explosion, they knew how the propane was able to get into the house. You see, very recently a CATV drop had been buried to his house, and the propane line had been cut in the process. Apparently, no one noticed the large propane tank located 15 feet from the back of the house, and so made no effort to locate that line. More investigation revealed that on Friday [5/30/03 -ed.], the drop was buried by a contractor for the local cable company. For 3 days the gas seeped into the basement of the home. My neighbor is a truck driver and was out of town, and didn't arrive home until early Monday morning.

"The official line is the cut was accidental, as I'm sure it was. But I am also sure that safety is no accident, and those people in this business should know all aspects of what they will come across. I know that locates were called in, but of course here as well as most everywhere I suppose, no one locates propane lines. I always located these myself, or hand dug when I couldn't get a bite on the pipe. So folks, pass this on to your crews, and maybe you'll save some lives, as well as the litigation hassles that will most certainly ensue from such a careless act. Thanks for reading so long of a post."

Kent Binkerd

Newspaper articles about this accident may
be found by searching www.argusleader.com