Grandmother, grandson killed in Ohio house explosion (Incredible picture of what was a house)

WKRC ^ | 03/02/2011 | WKRC

[TSgt]

SUFFIELD TOWNSHIP, OH (WOIO) - A grandmother and her grandson were killed when their Portage County home exploded early Wednesday morning.

The coroner has identified the victims as 63-year-old Regina Proudfoot and 21-year-old Robert Croft. Nobody else lived with them.

Investigators tell the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, WOIO-TV, that the home-which is about 35 miles southeast of Cleveland- was heated by propane, and confirmed around 11 a.m. that the incident is propane-related. However, the exact origin and cause of the 4 a.m. explosion have not yet been pinpointed.

The house had a 500-gallon propane tank which had recently been refilled. Nearby homes were also damaged in the massive explosion, which could be felt miles away in the neighboring city of Hartville.

[Cboldt]

-- I suspect there was a house fire, intense heat, and THEN the propane tank exploded. --

More likely a gas leak inside the house, resulting in a large volume of potentially explosive propane-air mixture, then a spark from perhaps a propane-fired water heater, or such.

[RobRoy]

Well, I grew up on another planet (a large moon, actually) but I now live within a couple thousand miles of there.

[OB1kNOb]

We are all electric and I like it that way.

I thought that too until the ice storm of 2000 put us without electricity for 2 weeks and hence no heat. Now I have propane and wood heat to go with the electricity.

[ElkGroveDan]

I just had MY 500 gallon propane tank filled. In our case though, it is buried with top access, it were to blow like that one, the force would blow straight up.

I don’t think this was a routine maintenance issue though. I suspect maybe the day before a car had bumped the tank and cracked a weld or something like that.

[bvw]

LOL! So true. We all look for ways to relate to what we hear or read. And we find them, but we don’t have to share them unless there’s something in that relationship that others would find enlightening.

[Peter from Rutland]

This is true. In fact on Myth Busters they fired a 30-30 round into a FULL propane tank and it did NOT explode.

Propane tanks are exceedingly safe. The only way you can blow one up is to fill one up with the vent plugged up.

We switched from home heating oil (now bio-oil which is less BTUs, good luck with that) to propane. Burns more efficiently, costs less, and now the difference in BTUs is not as bad with the stupid bio-oil garbage. As far as those switching to electricity, try that in (M)assachusetts!

You have it inspected once a year, tanks, lines, etc. Best part? No morons fiddling with the gas lines in the street, someone screws up and BOOM!

Talk to anyone who works in the business and ask them how many open natural gas leaks there are!

[Mr. K]

If you look carefully you can see about a 100 yard circle around the house, from the initial blast radius.

scary stuff

[Calvin Locke]

I had a professor that modified his pickup to run on propane as well.

He taught a class at another school a hundred miles away, and said he could switch over on during his commute.

That was during the Carter I years.

[4yearlurker]

I know what Moon you are talking about. I went to restaurant there once. The place had good food but no atmosphere.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“I don’t think liquid propane really blows up.”

Exactly. There is very little danger from the tank itself. I’ve seen and fought fires under the tanks themselves. Unless you have a fire that heats the propane tank into a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion), which is rare. Most likely they had a propane leak inside the house which mixed with air to reach the magic fuel air ration and a spark ignited it.

The photo shows equal debris in all directions, so I would suspect the explosion couldn’t have been from a tank outside the house.

[Libloather]

Probably the only way I’ll get out of my house what I have in it - from the insurance settlement.

Be sure to keep your paperwork in the next county.

[stormer]

Hey! I think we grew up in different towns together!

[al baby]

Now that is funny

[TSgt]

I have a large generator, kerosene heater and wood stove.

[LonePalm]

Propane tanks don't explode unless they are catastrophically damaged. They are damn hard to cut up even after they are empty and purged of remaining gas.

Having been close(< 60 ft.) to a 100 gallon propane tank when it went off, I am pretty sure that it was not the tank in this case.

We were at a tobacco barn fire. Once a tobacco barn lights off there is nothing you can do to save it. We were trying to save the barn next to it when the tank over pressurized from the heat of the burning barn. The safety lifted blowing the cover about 50 feet in the air.

The result was about a 12 foot tongue of flame. It took over 15 minutes until it burned off enough propane and we were able to cool it enough to reset the safety.

In order to scatter the parts of the house like this, there would have to have been an explosive gas/air mixture inside the house at the time of ignition.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Panama is a great user of propain...I mean “propane” because it is less expensive. Not I. Everything is electric in my house.

[surfer]

propane is like anything else...including electric. You have to maintain the storage, connections, etc...

Ask the families of people who died because of aluminum wiring in their homes...

[RobRoy]

>>The place had good food but no atmosphere.<<

THAT’S THE PLACE!

[Kinzua]

What do you mean? Why did they die because of aluminum wiring in the house?

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Same for me but ya have to exit the back door instead of the front.