Peggy, i've got work to do...
Posted on 09/03/2006 1:42:45 AM PDT by kenth
NASHOBA — A peaceful Sunday morning breakfast erupted into a hellish inferno at the Erwin family cabin near Nashoba Sunday morning.
Randall Erwin, former State Representative and current Executive Director of Little Dixie Community Action Agency, was cooking breakfast for his family when two explosions rocked the relatively new cabin.
Erwin, his wife Dianne and daughter Brittany suffered substantial burns and were taken to Pushmataha County Hospital by private vehicle by Erwin’s daughter Terra. Not injured in the blast was Brittany’s son Brodie, who was outside playing when the explosions occurred. Erwin was airlifted around noon Sunday to Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa.
Pushmataha County Sheriff Jim Duncan said Erwin’s wife Dianne and daughter Brittany were later also taken to Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa.
Though none of their injuries were life-threatening, Randall was reportedly scheduled to undergo surgery on his burns at 5:30 Monday.
He reportedly suffered burns over 28 percent of his body.
Dianne was reported to have suffered burns over 16 percent of her body and Brittany was said to have sustained burns over 38 percent of her body.
Nashoba Rural Fire Department Assistant Chief Tim Boyd said 10 members of that rural fire department battled the cabin blaze.
“When we first drove up, the structure was fully engulfed,” Boyd said.
“There was absolutely no way this fire could have been put out. It was too far gone,” Boyd added.
“Their was definitely an explosion, because window glass was blown 50-60 feet out, and even the door jams were blown out 20-30 feet,” Boyd said.
Both Boyd and Sheriff Duncan said that Erwin’s daughter, Terra and her husband had gone up to the family’s larger home nearby on a four-wheeler to use the phone. Upon returning, they reported the family members running from the home on fire.
Clayton Fire Department was the first to receive a call at 8:41 a.m. and they called Nashoba RFD at 8:43 a.m.
Boyd said he had been told that Erwin had just opened the door on the kitchen stove when the first explosion occurred, knocking Erwin to the floor. Almost immediately after that, the second explosion occurred and the blast was even greater.
Boyd said a family member had reported that two air-mattresses were being deflated in the living room of the cabin when the blasts occurred.
He said that one or both of them had been inflated with propane either during deer season or at some time in the past and it was believed that all of the propane gas had not been removed when they were stored.
Boyd said the stove on which Erwin was cooking was electric, and not propane.
“There were two small nearly-new propane bottles on the front porch by a gas grill when we got there,” Boyd said. “Those bottles blew up while we were fighting the fire.”
“They had just sold the big house and had spent two or three days removing all their photos and family heirlooms, and they put them in them temporarily in the cabin,” Boyd added. “It looks like they lost everything.”
Assistant Chief Boyd said the Nashoba fire department was assisted by at least one Honobia RFD truck and squad.
Sheriff Duncan said he had been in contact with the State Fire marshall’s office concerning the fire. Employees at Little Dixie reported that all three members of the Erwin family were in the burn unit at Hillcrest Hospital. The phone number in the burn center waiting room was given as: 918.579.1000.
If air matresses were meant to be filled with propane, they'd be called propane matresses and probably come with a skin graft kit.
Good lord. Why in the name of all that's holy would you blow up an air mattress w/propane?? I can't even think of a possible reason to do so.
Someone trying very hard to win The Darwin Award.
.
I hate to be ignorant here, but really, why would one use propane to blow up an air mattress? Would propane make the mattress more comfortable than air? Could they possibly have thought it was faster to fill from a propane tank than to blow it up manually? I can't even fathom the thought process here.
Thanks for posting.
Perhaps you have educated an ignorant person.
Stupid people will never learn
There was no thought process here.
So we read about it after the fire.
Escaped death...or worse. Hope Mom's burns heal quicker knowing her son was unharmed.
No human could be that stupid.
As a Rush fan since 1989 and FreeRepublic member, I noticed there was no mention of ex-representative Randall Lee Erwins political party.
Goggled and I found:
Representative Randall Lee Erwin
Democrat - OK (19)
Be that as it may burns like these are terrible, prayers for their recovery.
My guess would be that they had no air pump handy and needed a place to sleep.
The story said they did this ridiculously stupid thing during deer season. As a long-time deer hunter I can tell you that after a long day in the woods, even if you've done nothing but sit still and shiver in the chill air, you get bone-tired and the last thing you want to do is sleep on a cold, hard floor.
But to fill an inflatable mattress with propane and sleep on a bomb is beyond stupid. To then leave the mattresses full of propane for months afterward breaks new, previously unexplored ground in the world of stupidity. Whoever did it should get the largest, grandest, "All-time Champion" Darwin Award statue ever made.
*Mouth Agape*
No further comment.
"No human could be that stupid."
Human? The article is about the decision to inflate air mattresses with propane made by a Democratic politician. Where does 'human' come into the discussion?
Contact: State Rep. Randall Erwin
Capitol: (405) 557-7382
Nashoba: (918) 755-4415
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 20, 2004) -- Oklahoma’s most reprehensible sex offenders could be ordered to undergo surgical castration as part of their punishment, under legislation approved Tuesday by the House of Representatives.
Rep. Randall Erwin, D-Nashoba, attached an amendment to Senate Bill 1413 that would allow any convicted sex offender to voluntarily consent to surgical castration, and would give courts the option to order the surgery as punishment for the worst of the worst.
If enacted, Oklahoma would become the first state in the nation to impose surgical castration as part of a criminal sentence.
(Not a bad idea, but there might be that pesky "Bill of Rights" Amendment VIII in the US Constitution from the 18th century getting in the way.)
The family will now sue the air mattress manufacturer and "Do Not Use Propane to Inflate Mattress" labels will then become required on all air mattresses (even the kind used in pools) sold.
Better check the SUV tires, too, and it wouldn't hurt to check the kid's inner tubes.
Might also look at the garden and see if he strung up grenades to scare the crows away.
Yikes! Do they wash their dishes in gasoline, too? Sounds like some stupid stunt made for TV.
I am speechless. This is a Darwin contender for sure.
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