Blanchard, OK – A father is speaking out about a house explosion that seriously injured his wife and daughter, and he is thanking his neighbors.
Three people were inside the Blanchard house on Sunday when it exploded, and they all survived. Investigators have blamed a propane leak on the explosion.
“Once I saw the pictures of the house, I couldn’t believe that they were alive,” said Miles Sumner, who was out of town when the explosion happened.
Sumner’s wife, Tanya Sumner, is in a local hospital in serious condition with burns on half of her face. His daughter — 2-year-old Bella — was also injured in the blast. She was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
“I guess the mattress that my wife and daughter were on — it was 8:30 in the morning — it flipped (and) was blown over on them and kept the brunt of the blast off of them,” Miles Sumner said.
A neighbor, Cindy Peters, was first to the scene helping.
“I got the baby out,” Peters said. “All the neighbors were here and helped me lift. All this other wood was on top of them.”
Both Tanya Sumner and her daughter were asleep when the house exploded. Miles Sumner’s father-in-law — 68-year-old Richard Hoff — was in the house, too.
“He had the dishwasher on top of him is what I’ve heard. They pulled it out and got him out,” Sumner said.
Hoff is in critical condition at a local hospital.
Miles Sumner said he can’t thank his neighbors enough because he has his family.
“If that’s the way it had to be, I feel pretty happy that, you know, my destiny meant to go on with my family because, without them, there’s not much left for me,” he said.
His family’s home reduced to a pile of rubble, all Miles Sumner has now is hope. When he finally saw his home, he said, “It was completely gone, like toothpicks blown over.”
A fund was established after the explosion for anyone wishing to provide assistance. Visit a Tinker Federal Credit Union branch to contribute to the Sumner Hoff Family Assistance Fund.