GREEN TOWNSHIP — George and Lois Bourgraf were delivering a poinsettia to a friend at a nursing home Sunday morning when an apparent natural gas explosion leveled their house.

Screen door from the Bourgraf home landed in neighbor's yards across the street. (Craig Ruttle photos) | ZOOM |

        “We would have normally been here had we not taken the flowers,” said Mrs. Bourgraf, 77, as she watched firefighters hose water onto the smoldering pile of rubble that had been her home for 39 years.

        “I just don't understand why I'm not crying right now, but I will tomorrow,” she said. “We have our clothes we are wearing ... our shoes. We lost everything else, even our medicine.”

        No one was injured in the explosion at 3149 Timberview Drive just after 10 a.m. The four-bedroom brick home, built in 1956, was a total loss, with damage estimated at $170,000, fire officials said.

        Fire investigators believe the blast was caused when natural gas, leaking from a broken gas main in front of the Bourgrafs' home, found its way inside and was ignited.

        The explosion was so powerful that the Bourgrafs' front door and Christmas wreath were found in a neighbor's yard across the street.

Green Townships firefighters hose down the remains of the house. | ZOOM |

        Several neighbors reported smelling gas and seeing water bubbling in the street Sunday morning.

        At least one of them, Janet Andrea, who lives four doors away, said she called Cinergy about 10 minutes before the explosion.

        “It (the gas) was so strong, I tasted it,” Ms. Andrea said.

        After the explosion, Cinergy workers discovered the leak and scrambled to repair it, said Steve Brash, Cinergy spokesman.

Neighbor Brian Schaft hugs Lois Bourgrafs as she looks at the scene. | ZOOM |

        The Bourgrafs usually leave their home at about 10:15 a.m. Sundays to attend 11 a.m. Mass at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown.

        But Sunday, they headed out 30 minutes early to bring the plant to a former neighbor who now lives at Scarlet Oaks Retirement Community in Clifton.

        That neighbor, Alberta Kuhlmann, wept with relief Sunday afternoon as she looked at her poinsettia.

        “It really is almost like God sent them here,” said Ms. Kuhlmann, 84, who lived across the street from the Bourgrafs for decades until she moved to Scarlet Oaks last year.

        “God love them. It is a blessing,” she said. “I was just shaking when I heard. I always wondered why I have to be in a nursing home. Maybe this is the answer why. It saved their lives in a way.”

George Bourgraf is led by daughter-in-law Lynn Bourgraf and others as he arrives to see his home. | ZOOM |

        No damage was reported from surrounding homes on Timberview Drive but dozens of neighbors, including children, watched in horror from their windows as pieces of the two-story home blew into the air, then rained down.

        “We were cooking breakfast and heard a big boom,” said Colleen Groshein, 34, who lives two doors down with her three children. “We ran to my son's window and looked out and the house was blown up into the sky. It was just everywhere. Thank God no one was home.”

        Cinergy received the first complaint about the gas leak at 9:50 a.m. and dispatched a crew to investigate, Mr. Brash said. A Cinergy worker arrived at the house moments after it exploded and called 911, according to Mr. Brash and Lt. Michael Nie of the Green Township Fire Department.

        Jeff Hinton, 36, who lives across the street, told Mrs. Bourgraf that he was about to call about the gas leak himself.

        “But by the time I touched the phone, the house blew up,” Mr. Hinton said.

        The couple already was at the cathedral, where Mr. Bourgraf, 78, serves as an usher, when they got the call from the Green Township Fire Department.

        “They said not to rush back, not to get in an accident because there was nothing left,” Mrs. Bourgraf said.

        Before the couple returned, neighbors salvaged a few of their belongings that had blown into a nearby field. Helped by a family friend and daughter-in-law Lynn Bourgraf, the Bourgrafs slowly walked down their street toward the smoking wreckage.

        Neighbors and family members hugged them. Then Ms. Andrea gave Mrs. Bourgraf a plastic bag that held several singed Christ mas cards, and a black and white photo of the couple — who have been married 54 years — taken decades ago at the now-closed pool at Meadowbrook Park in Ross.

        “Those are the kinds of things you can't replace,” said Ms. Andrea.

        The Bourgrafs are retired and have two grown sons and a grown daughter. They have lived in the neighborhood for 46 years, including several years in a home across the street.

        For now, the couple plans to stay with their oldest son, Gary, and his wife, Mary, in West Chester Township. By Sunday afternoon, they had replaced medicine lost in the blast. Their youngest son, Jay, and his wife, Lynn, gave them clothes.

        Hours after the explosion, firefighters still were sifting through the wreckage and dousing hot spots. .

        Mr. Brash said he did not know how large the gas leak was or how long it had gone on.

        “It is virtually impossible to tell how long a specific pipe has been leaking,” he said. “Leaks are fairly common and occur in a whole different variety of circumstances.

        “There are small, pinhole leaks that are not noticeable unless you use machinery that smells the gas in very small amounts,” he said. “There also are circumstances where you will have larger breaks that occur in the main.”

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