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| It happened August 23, 1992. A Sunday. It was the day before my oldest daughter's 11th birthday and we had just finished having an early family get together for the occasion. We lived in the Jack Fork Mountains in a trailer house that was connected to a pond for it's source of water. There was no filter system, so we didn't drink or cook with this water, but we did use it to bathe in. During the summer, dirt from the pond clogged the cold water lines to the trailer. We would let the hot water run until it cooled down enough to bathe in. It had been suggested that we could use the pressure from a propane system to blow out these lines but I resisted that idea. I was afraid. When school started I knew we would have to do something so the kids could bathe and be clean. Letting the water cool down would take too long, so I agreed to go ahead with the propane idea. My husband at the time, Kevin, was running the valve on the propane tank outside, and I was holding the hose to the water spiggot in the kitchen sink. The propane would shoot into the lines till you turned it off and then the dirt would spew back out. Made a heck of a mess. The hose didn't fit the spiggot good, and a lot of propane leaked into the kitchen. I was standing looking out the window where I could see my 3 kids washing our truck, when I remembered that we had forgot to turn out the pilot lights on the propane cookstove. The second I thought of it, I turned to run. I had made about a 1/4 of the turn when the propane ignited. I heard a big boom and was thrown to the floor on my hands and knees. I instinctivly shut my eyes and rolled into a ball. I could hear something burning, and trailers being what they are, thought the house was burning down around me. I was screaming, but not from pain. I can't describe the fear, but it was fear that caused me to scream. I heard my husband saying, "Baby...Baby?" I didn't open my eyes until he had picked me up and set me onto my feet. He patted around my waist because my shirt was still on fire. I could see that it was my kitchen curtains, and the back of a vinly chair that was on fire. I looked down at my arms and could see the skin hanging in ribbons like bracelets. I said "Oh my God. I've been burned." My husband grabbed me up and took me to the truck. My oldest girl Stephanie had heard the scream and had started running down our dirt road driveway to get help from my in-laws. The other two kids, Kayla & Jimmy, climbed into the back of the truck. Stephanie was about 1/2 way down the road when we picked her up, and I remember looking at her and wondering where her shirt was. She told me later that she heard the blast, felt heat on her back, and thought she was on fire so she pulled it off. |
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