CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A man and his ex-girlfriend died Wednesday morning from burn injuries, a day after a natural gas explosion shattered the apartment they had shared.
Investigators believe Samuel Sampson, 34, had filled the couple's second-story apartment in Charleston's East End with natural gas by disconnecting a heater in a bedroom Tuesday evening, Charleston police Sgt. Brent Webster said.
The gas exploded at about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday.
Sampson and Heather Hammack, 29, were both pronounced dead Wednesday at the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh, according to a spokesman with the Allegheny County (Pa.) Coroner's Office.
Neighbors said Hammack had broken up with Sampson about a week ago. She returned to the apartment Tuesday with a friend, Shantella Guthrie, to gather some belongings.
Guthrie, 40, waited at the kitchen door because she thought she smelled gas but Hammack went into the bedroom, neighbors said.
``It was like someone dropped a bomb,'' said neighbor John Mabry.
It's not clear what ignited the gas, police and fire investigators said.
Neighbor Edward Haynes rushed into the apartment to try to help the victims.
``The whole damn room was a big ball of fire,'' Haynes said. ``You couldn't see a mattress or a bed, you could just see fire.''
``It rocked the building. It rocked everything around here,'' he said.
Haynes said Hammack was engulfed in flames. He started ripping off the woman's clothes and helped her walk down the apartment's rear steps and into the yard, where other neighbors scrambled to help.
Witnesses said Sampson also made it outside. He dropped to the ground and rolled to extinguish the flames.
Guthrie was treated and released from a Charleston hospital. No one else was injured. The first-story apartment was unoccupied.
Sampson had left a threatening message for Hammack on her answering machine earlier in the day.
``He told her not to come by or he was going to blow up the house,'' Webster said.
