HURRICANE -
The house exploded Monday afternoon. By Tuesday the ashes and rubble had settled, but the incident has not settled on the minds of neighbors who live in one of the more peaceful areas of Putnam County.
"My son and I were working out in the yard and sat there and heard a big boom. We kind of felt the sonic blast of it," said Ray Callaway, a neighbor who lives about 400 yards from the exploding house.
At that point Ray Callaway saw black smoke coming from his neighbor's house, so he and his son grabbed fire extinguishers and headed to the scene. When they got there, two people had made it out. Investigators identify the pair as Anthony Hawkins and Trina Clapham. They describe Clapham's burns as severe.
"She was breathing erratically. She was excited. She was starting stages of shock. She was all hyperactive and basically we just wrapped her in wet cold towels and stuff like that and tried to get her to calm down till the ambulance got here," said Callaway.
Investigators believe a meth lab may be the cause of the explosion because they said the property owner Jimmy Ward has a history of drug arrests. Because of that, Hurricane firefighters spent the day cleaning their equipment of any possible meth contamination.
"It gets your adrenaline going a little bit because you really don't know what is going to happen, but other than the precautions we take it's still pretty much treated as another fire," said Captain Rob Savage of the Hurricane Volunteer Fire Department.
Ward was not burned. He was in the yard at the time of the explosion. What's left of the house remains a crime scene as the investigation continues.
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