FEBRUARY 23, 2015
BRENTWOOD, LONG ISLAND
A residential home explosion that leveled a residence in
Brentwood Sunday evening left a woman hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit
at Stony Brook University Hospital, Suffolk County police said Tuesday.
Police identified the victim as Ryan Flanagan, 24, and said
she was in stable condition with "burns to 30 percent of her lower
extremities."
Jeff Rueb, who identified himself as co-owner of the house
on Third Avenue, said Flanagan lived in a rented detached cottage on the
property. Police Arson Squad detectives said the explosion was caused by a
ruptured propane line feeding a stove. Rueb
said the woman told him she had been painting and had moved the stove, which
was fed by an external propane tank.
Police confirmed the scenario, saying the explosion occurred
when the stove was being moved back into place.
Rueb said he and his wife had just returned from skiing in
Pennsylvania and that he had talked to Flanagan when he was shoveling snow
moments before the explosion.
"I had just gone in to take a shower," Rueb said,
"and I heard a horrific noise. We have plenty of big pine trees and I just
assumed one had fallen."
Then, Rueb said, he heard his wife screaming and went
outside -- to find the converted garage cottage in flames.
"She came crawling out, on fire," Rueb said of the
tenant, adding: "My wife screamed for her to roll in the snow."
Police received a 911 call at 7:36 p.m., reporting the
explosion. Volunteers from the Brentwood Fire Department responded and put out
the fire.
Photos from the scene showed half of the structure gone, the
rest of it charred.
"It's gone," Rueb said. "It's leveled, it's
burned. It's gone. I've never seen anything like it in my life . . . I'm just
thankful to God no one's dead.