Homeowners in shock after explosion, fire destroys house

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Staff photo by Andy Sedlak Firefighters battle a blaze in the 4200 block of Oxford Middletown Road in Wayne Twp. Friday, Sept. 3, 2010.

By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 2:45 PM Saturday, September 4, 2010

WAYNE TWP. — As a volunteer with the Wayne Twp. fire department, Jeff Kinsel said he has seen his share of fires. But when an explosion rocked his house just before 9:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 3, he couldn’t believe what he saw outside.

His neighbor’s house, a 1,600-square-foot brick ranch in the 4200 block of Oxford Middletown Road, was engulfed in flames. The bottom of the house had blown out and the structure had collapsed.

Sgt. Jeff Gebhart of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office said preliminary reports indicate the explosion may have started in a propane tank under the residence, which is located less than one mile from the Cox family farm in Jacksonburg.

Kinsel, 43, said he threw on his fire department shirt and called 911 as he walked outside and circled the home to see if anyone was inside. A few seconds later, his pager alerted him to the fire.

Fire officials said the explosion leveled the house within minutes. Fire and medical crews from Wayne, Madison and St. Clair townships, and Seven Mile battled the blaze and spent hours dowsing the smoldering structure as smoke billowed around the gaping hole that was once a fully-finished basement.

Kinsel said, “All I could think of was, I hope they (the owners) were gone,” he said.

Homeowners Donna and Doug Idle were away on a short trip to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. They were “just numb” after their son called to tell them their home for the past 18 years was gone.

Daughter-in-law Tracey Idle, 45, of Wayne Twp., said she and her 19-year-old daughter Chloe were planning to stop by the house later Friday to get the mail when she heard about the fire.

“They are just glad to be alive,” Tracey Idle said as she cried while standing on a neighbor’s driveway.

She said the Idles frequently take long weekends, and they sometimes leave their 6-year-old golden retriever, Hula, at home. But this trip, they took her with them.

For several hours, neighbors strolled up the country road past the blockade of fire trucks to view the destruction.

Bob Ricketson, 58, who lives two houses down, said he was upstairs in his bedroom getting dressed when he heard a large boom “that shook my house.

“Then I could see all this smoke rising into the sky from my bedroom window,” Ricketson said.

Kinsel’s girlfriend, Diana Haoil, said she has never seen anything like it. “The house, it just disintegrated,” she said.

Around 11 a.m., Nathalie Baker, Doug Idle’s daughter, arrived on the scene and got into a physical altercation with Tracey Idle. The women shoved each other until deputies separated them.

Gebhart said the fire is still under investigation. The Butler County fire investigation team and the State Fire Marshall were on scene. The fire was contained to the house.

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