By: WSAZ News Staff | Posted: Jan. 12, 2018 5:41 p.m. | Source: WSAZ
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — UPDATE 1/12/18 @ 5:31 p.m.
“All residents are out of the home. The structure is completely… leveled,” a firefighter says in audio released from Metro 911.
Firefighters rushed to a family home on Rosewood Way in the Coopers Creek area. A 1,000 gallon propane tank exploded in the early hours of Friday morning, ripping off the entire second story of the home.
“Oh my gosh!” said a shocked 10 year old girl.
Her medals were being hand delivered by Assistant Fire Marshal Shawn Alderman Friday morning, just hours after that girl and her family escaped that home explosion. Alderman said it’s the least he can do in the wake of what happened.
A neighbor tells WSAZ he heard the explosion and ran outside, expecting this to be a body recovery. He didn’t know the mother, father and girl made it out safely.
Early Friday morning, roughly 1:30 a.m., that mother had woken up to use the restroom. She noticed a heavy odor of propane.
“So she wakes her husband up, he investigates finding a vapor cloud moving across the driveway,” explained Fire Marshal Alderman.
The family was hiding behind a small stand of pine trees some 200 feet from their home where the propane tank blew.
“We have an explosion that basically is described to me as ripping off the entire second floor,” Alderman described.
In the daylight, you could see debris thrown hundreds of feet across the yard — plywood, toys, mangled furniture and insulation littering the ground. A porch railing was found by crews over a hill in a neighbor’s driveway, too.
“A 1,000 gallon propane tank is rolled over right up against the house. It’s leaking,” relays the Metro 911 dispatcher in that audio release from Friday morning.
Call it luck, or a guardian angel, but several things went exactly right despite the house being leveled.
“That dispatcher made, most likely made a very, very high percentage lifesaving call,” explained Assistant Fire Marshall Shawn Alderman.
On the phone with 911, the family said they were going to drive away from the house in their car. The dispatcher made sure they didn’t, however, because of the possibility of sparking the gas.
“I would say if the fire department would have been five or six minutes earlier, there’s a good chance they would have conceivably driven right into this thing,” Alderman said.
No lives were lost. The first responders are all alive and so is the family of three.
“If you can bring a tiny bit of comfort to a child or a family of three like that, you do what you need to do,” Alderman said. “The things we have recovered for this family are not things you’re going to go to the store and buy.”
Like this young girl’s memories of crossing the finish line.
Alderman said many people only see the bad things a fire marshal has to deal with, not situations like this. He said while it’s not in the job training, it’s something that often means the world.
Assistant State Fire Marshal Shawn Alderman tells WSAZ that fire will likely be burning for the next day or so, but it is contained. He added they will be bringing in a drone to help with their investigation of exactly what happened.
We’re told that home’s propane tank had just been filled this week, and it slipped from it’s spot coming to rest against the house. The tank’s hose ruptured, causing the gas to spill out before igniting.
ORIGINAL STORY
A home was destroyed in an explosion that, firefighters say, was caused by a residential sized propane tank.
The fire happened about 1:30 a.m. Friday in the 100 block of Rosewood Way in the Coopers Creek area of Kanawha County.
No one was hurt.
Firefighters say the tank exploded and rolled down a hill into the house, catching it on fire. A second explosion from the tank leveled the home.
Three people were home at the time, but everyone was able to make it out safely. Firefighters say the woman woke up and smelled it and got everyone out of the house.
Five Mile Road was closed in the area as crews were on the scene.
