A suspected gas fire started a fire that destroyed a home at 2411 S. St. Paul St. and severely injured the homeowner this afternoon.
Denver Fire Department spokesman Lt. Phil Champagne said the homeowner smelled gas when he got home, but proceeded to put items in an electric clothes dryer.
When the homeowner switched on the dryer, it exploded, seriously injuring him.
“It was loud, really, really loud,” said Lori Marks-Connors, a neighbor who lives across the alley. “Stuff was popping off the (electrical) wires above the house, and it was really weird.”
Marks-Connors said that immediately after the explosion, she got in her car and drove around the block to the front of the fire.She said she saw the badly injured homeowner come out of his front door.
“He looked at me weird, and I asked him, ‘Are you OK?'” Marks-Connors said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Other neighbors described the homeowner, a man in his mid-50s, as badly burned, with skin peeling from his legs and arms as he walked from the house.
His face also appeared to have been covered in ash.
“He came out front very upset, and saying he put something in the dryer and it knocked him through the door,” said Patty Ramey, another neighbor who lives next door to the victim, and whose home was slightly scorched by the fire.
The homeowner was rushed to a local hospital, where information on his condition has not been released.
No one else was at the home at the time of the explosion, said Champagne, and officials are trying to track down the man’s wife and two teenaged children.
According to neighbors, a dog, cat and bird also lived in the home. The cat was rescued, but the family’s dog, an English sheepdog named Frankie, and the bird are missing.
Firefighters responded aggressively as the fire threatened other nearby homes, Champagne said.
A corner of Ramey’s garage appeared to be slightly scorched, but other neighboring homes were not damaged.
Neighbors said the original home on the lot had been demolished, and a 4,100 square foot home worth over $1.3 million was built in its place about five years ago. The current homeowner and his family have lived in the home for about a year.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, however some neighbors speculated the dryer explosion, which occurred in a room close to the home’s garage, may have also ignited the gas tank of a car parked in the garage.
Anna Haislip: 303-954-1638, or ahaislip@denverpost.com
