GLENPOOL, Okla. (AP) -- A Glenpool man and his two young sons were hospitalized with burns after an explosion that left their house a smoldering ruin.
Neighbors who heard the explosion about 11 p.m. Saturday rushed to the scene to pull Cecil Fitzpatrick, 32, and his sons Christopher, 9, and Justin, 11, to safety, Interim Fire Chief Mike Lowman said.
''It looks like a natural gas explosion,'' Lowman said.
The blast blew the walls off the house, and pieces of the roof and walls landed on neighboring homes.
Crews took both children and the father to the burn unit at Tulsa's Hillcrest Medical Center, Lowman said. Cecil Fitzpatrick was in critical condition but improving while the children were not as seriously injured and could be released in a few days, Lowman said.
Two neighbors, who entered the house through a large hole that used to be the living room window, said they lifted a piece of the roof off Christopher, who was pinned underneath.
''We could hear him yelling that he was trapped and we just kind of lifted it up and he crawled out,'' said Della Cramer, who lives across the street and ran to help with her sister, Theresa Kelley, a local emergency medical services worker.
The rescuers found Cecil Fitzpatrick standing in what had been his living room and found Justin near the bathroom, they said.
Minutes after they had the man and his children safely out, flames engulfed what was left of the gutted structure and burned it down, Cramer said.
''Somebody was looking after them, because once they got out, then the house was gone,'' Cramer said.
Neighbors said Fitzpatrick's wife was working as a nurse at an area hospital when the explosion occurred.
''It took about an hour to bring the fire under control,'' Lowman said. The blaze consumed all of the family's belongings and their newly purchased pickup truck, he said.
''Nothing was salvageable on this thing,'' Lowman said.
The Fitzpatricks had no renters' insurance for their belongings and only liability insurance for their burned pickup truck, which the couple had just purchased with their tax return, Cramer said.
The wife has been staying at the hospital since the explosion, Kelley said, and has nowhere else to stay, although family members were in town to help.
The American Red Cross also is helping the family, Lowman said.
Information from: Tulsa World
