The Explosion
"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
This is the story of the accident that changed my life and why I use a wheelchair. I and Kenny, my boyfriend at the time, were in a gas explosion in my home that I was renting. It happened on a brisk and clear night in March, in a small town called Wheatland, California. I was working as a bartender at Bills Place, a local bar and steak house and I was closing up the bar for the night. Kenny was sitting at the bar, having a drink, and waiting for me to finish up so that we could go home to my place. We had just finished having an emotional and tearful discussion about our relationship and where it was heading. I was planning on moving to Eugene, Oregon to attend college and be near my biological father, Willie, who I had just recently met. Kenny was in the midst of a divorce and had two young daughters that he loved dearly. He couldn’t leave them behind and go with me to Eugene, at least not at that time.
Because I needed some fresh air and time alone to think, I decided to walk home and he agreed to meet me back at my house and then he got in his van and drove away. For some reason, I felt like running and so decided to run home instead of walking. The night was perfect for a run and I loved to run. Unfortunately, this ended up being the last time I ran.
When I got to my house, he wasn’t there yet; I guess I ran pretty fast. When I came into my house, it was cold so I clicked on the thermostat to the new wall heater that was just installed that morning. It wasn’t coming on, so I bent down to check the pilot light, it was out, so I got a match and lit it and then stood up to turn on the thermostat. As soon as it hit the 60 degrees mark, the heater ignited and blew up the whole house. The impact from the explosion threw me across the room and against the wall and then a hide-a-bed couch flipped up and landed on top of me. I was trapped under the couch and I was bent at the waist with my face almost to my knees.
Immediately I heard Kenny’s voice yelling for me, he had just walked in the door when the house exploded, the floor exploded up around his legs up to his waist and had him trapped. As debris started to settle, we could hear flames of fire igniting and growing larger. We both realized that we were trapped in the house and we were going to die as the flames started engulfing it. Thoughts of burning slowly to death and not being able to escape such suffering filled my mind, and the thought of Kenny going through the same suffering was too much to bear. This was the utmost horrific and frightening situation to be in. I could hear Kenny yelling out to me, he was powerless to help either of us. We were both trapped without the ability to save each other or ourselves! I cried out to the God I did not know, I didn’t want to die this way, please help us..not like this... I begged.
It seemed like an eternity, when all of a sudden we heard voices coming from outside the house, it was three friends from down the street, and they heard the explosion and came to see what the heck happened. They were barefoot, so they grabbed some shoes from some onlookers that had heard the explosion and were watching the house burn. They placed the shoes on their feet and ran into the burning house. The guy named Ted helped pull Kenny out of the house and Doug, the other guy tried lifting up the couch to pull me out from under it, but each time he lifted the couch, blue flames would try to engulf me. He was struggling to hold up the couch and pull me out from under it while keeping the flames from burning me. He succeeded in getting me out, but he said that someone else held the couch up while he pulled me out. To this day we don’t know who that person was who helped with the couch. Doug and Ted claim that they saw a figure standing in one of the bedroom doorways as they came in, it was my guardian angel. I wanted to add, that when Doug found me under the couch, he said to me “April, I won’t leave this house without you in my arms”. This has been imprinted in my heart to this day, it meant a lot, because Doug was known for being the town drunkard, but after this night, he ended up being a hero! They were able to get us out of the house and drag us across the street and laid us out on the lawn. Immediately the house exploded a second time. It was probably the water heater, we are not sure. My legs felt like they were on fire they were burning so bad. I thought they were on fire, but the paramedics told me that they were not on fire. Now I know it was the spinal injury causing the pain. We were rushed to the Rideout Memorial Hospital by ambulance. The x-rays showed that I had shattered four vertebrae in my back and so they had me transported to U.C. Davis hospital in Sacramento via ambulance to perform surgery. After an 8 hour surgery of fusing a bunch of vertebras, installing two Harrington rods along my spine, I was told that I only had a 50/50 chance of walking again. I would not believe them and was determined to walk again. So I did the best I could. I worked hard at my therapy. I started off being paralyzed from my waist down and got return, feeling and function all the way down to my knees within six months. I did get fitted for braces and did gait training, but it was too difficult and I kept falling backwards and hurting myself more. I and the therapists decided it was safer and easier to use a wheelchair to get around.
In the meantime, Kenny was stuck at Rideout Hospital for a few weeks in traction with a broken femur and crushed bones in his feet.We were missing each other deeply and realized how lucky we were to be alive and loved each other so much. As soon as he was released from Rideout, our friends drove him up to see me at UC Davis hospital. Unfortunately we only stayed together for about two years after the accident. We were caught up in the drugs and drinking and fought like crazy! And we were going through an ugly lawsuit.
We both survived this explosion and received minimum burns. This was amazing! The firemen and explosive experts said that there is no way any human survived this explosion, they were shocked that we were alive! The accident has not stopped me from living passionately despite the wheelchair! Since then, I met the father of my children, Randy, we moved to Humboldt County, and lived on a remote 2 acres up in Maple Creek, California for 13 years; depending on solar, hydro-electric and a Kohler generator for electrical power. We had natural spring gravity flow water, wood heat and I gave birth to 4 handsome baby boys and homeschooled them. Unfortunately, the father eventually chose the bottle, heroin and another woman over his family and left us alone up on the hill. I ran the place for a whole year without a man, before calling it quits and moving me and my sons down the hill to McKinleyville, California to a house with modern conveniences and sidewalks...the two older boys were skaters.
I now live in the beautiful Patrick’s Point Park area north of Trinidad California with Elijah the youngest. My three older sons, Joshua 28, father of a beautiful daughter and handsome little boy, lives a few miles south in McKinleyville with his lady and works at the Sushi Spot Restaurant as manager, Daniel 24 lives across the road from me with his girlfriend and works on and off as a chef. Daniel has some health issues that have been hard on all of us, but that will be in a different chapter. James, 20, is up in Anchorage Alaska working with family friends doing construction, welding, charter fishing and is a guide for Rainy Pass Lodge in the summer and fall. While raising my sons I went to college and earned an Associate of Science Degree in Library Science. I just landed a wonderful part-time job at Big Lagoon School Library. I still do all the things I love to do, although some more challenging at times. I love to be outdoors, kayaking, swimming, dancing, camping, and horseback riding and hiking in the redwoods (on my big scooter of course) and attend music festivals and shows. I live a pretty normal life. (Whatever normal may be… lol) My life has been an adventure and I look forward to many more. It has been difficult, but I try to keep a positive attitude and live for the moment.
P.S. My two cats and dog were found hiding in a closet of the burned out home the morning after the explosion they survived the explosion also. Unfortunately, because of lung damage from inhaling the fire and smoke, Nubbers the cat died a few weeks later and Shasta the dog died 6 months later after giving birth to 6 puppies. Guess who became momma dog to 6 puppies? ;) Asia, the kitty ended up living another 20 years.
