Florissant home explosion sends man to hospital

A Florissant home explosion sent a suburban St. Louis man to the hospital with burn injuries.

Florissant Valley Fire Protection District first-responders said they were called early Sunday morning to a Florissant home on the 400 block of Paddlewheel Drive at around 8 a.m. When they arrived, they discovered that the home had exploded.

Florissant is about 18 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis.

Florissant home explosion:
Roof was blown off house

Neighbor Debora Cheers told a reporter for St. Louis’ KSDK-TV that she and her husband felt their house shake during the explosion.

“It sounded like crystal and glass and something being broken,” Cheers said.

Cheers said that she and her husband thought something had happened to their home. Then they looked across the street.

“I looked over there,” Cheers said, “and then I just started screaming ‘Dial 911, Dial 911!’ ”

She said the house’s roof was “up in the air,” and the kitchen windows were blown out. Cheers said she could see right into the house.

Florissant home explosion:
Another neighbor to the rescue

Cheers said that she watched as another neighbor, Justin Koster, ran into the house.

“My other neighbor actually ran inside,” Cheers said.

Koster, an electrician, said he was doing laundry when the explosion occurred. “I just heard a boom,” Koster said. “It didn’t rattle my windows but I said, ‘That ain’t right for a Sunday morning.’ ”

Florissant home explosion:
‘Immediately, I knew it was gas’

Koster told KSDK-TV that he thought a tree had fallen on his neighbor’s house until he saw fire coming out of the front window.

“Then, I just grabbed my two fire extinguishers,” Koster said.

Koster, who said he put out four small fires inside the home, said it didn’t take long to realize the source of the explosion.

“I knew it happened in the kitchen because everything had blasted away from the kitchen,”  Koster said. “I thought he was cooking something, it must have been the gas line. Immediately, I knew it was gas.”

Florissant home explosion:
Injured man in his 70s

The blast impacted the foundation of the entire home, and both Koster and Cheers said their neighbor was laying on his front porch shaking.

“It’s like he fell off a 10-foot ladder,” Koster said. “He was straight on his back. He was out of wind.”

The injured man, who has not been identified, is in his 70s and lives alone.

Florissant home explosion: A suburban St. Louis man was hospitalized with burn injuries after his house exploded. … Grayson County explosion: Angela Young, who was severely burned when her home exploded Jan. 29, died of her injuries.

Grayson County explosion:
Severely burned woman dies

Angela Young, who was severely burned when her home exploded, has died, family members said. Young, 41, of in Grayson County, Kentucky, died after suffering severe burns in the Jan. 29 home explosion, according to a Facebook post on the page “Angela and Jo’s Well-being Updates.”

“Angela Young has passed,” the post reads. “We are taking it the best we can. We ask that you don’t attempt to contact my Mamaw or Papaw through the phone as they need time to cope. I would appreciate it if you also left any messages/calls to me to a minimum.”

Young was inside her house with her daughter Johanna, 7, when the house exploded. Investigators said the home’s furnace malfunctioned hours after a worker refilled the propane.

AJ Scanlon, Young’s son, told a WDRB-TV reporter the day after the explosion that his mother shielded his sister from the blast, “which would have been a shockwave and some violent heat,” he said

Young was being treated for burns on 80 percent of her body at University of Louisville Hospital. She was expected to be in a medically induced coma for several weeks. Johanna was treated for minor burns to her back and released from the hospital.

Grayson County explosion:
Gas smell after propane tank filled

Family members said they noticed the smell of gas after the home’s propane tank was refilled earlier the day of the explosion. An employee for Midwest Propane, the company that refilled the tank, also reported smelling gas.

When Young’s father found out about the odor, he turned off the gas and furnace. Later in the day, Angela Young and her daughter made a quick stop at the house when it blew up.