ROSE TOWNSHIP, Mich.
A decade ago, Harebell Childress was bathing when lightning hit his home and
set it on fire.
He escaped unscathed, wearing only a towel, and rebuilt his house.
Earlier this week, he was watching television when an explosion burned the
house down. He got out with just cuts on his forehead and a sore back and left
shoulder.
“I tell you, the Lord did it,” the 70-year-old retired Pontiac school
principal told The Oakland Press. “I was surrounded by a host of angels.”
The odds of surviving two such disasters are so remote, actuaries for one
Detroit-area insurer said they couldn’t calculate the likelihood, the Detroit
Free Press reported.
“He’s lucky to be alive,” said Sgt. Robert Gohl of the Oakland County
Sheriff’s Department Fire Investigation Unit.
The blast remains under investigation, but it appears the Tuesday night
explosion resulted from a propane leak. The house’s furnace, water heater and
stove ran on propane, Gohl said.
The explosion blew out the windows of the home and collapsed the roof. Cinder
blocks were blown hundreds of feet (meters) out into a field. The couch was
knocked over.
“I thought it was a bomb, like terrorism or something,” said Childress’
niece, Marva Hanks, who lives nearby. “We’re a family of believers. We’ve seen
miracles on this property before.”