DETROIT (WXYZ) — The family living next door to a house explosion on Detroit’s east side is speaking out today.
I talked to the dad who was the one in the home with his three kids when their world was literally rocked.
He told me he’s still shaken up and preferred not to be on camera… but graciously took me through exactly what he experienced.
“It’s a moment that I wouldn’t want nobody to experience. And it’s something you will only see out of a movie,” Frank Bethea, father of three.
Frank Bethea tells me his kids had just finished their house chores Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re in the front room. We had just sat down, relaxing, everybody doing what they do," said Bethea. “In like a blink of an eye, and everything just like came in on us. It was crazy.”
The house next door exploded sending bricks, glass, and shrapnel raining down on him and his three kids, 12-year-old Damari, 11-year-old Miracle, and 6-year-old Jacob.
WXYZ’s Mike Duffy asked, “ What was the sound like?”
“Like an atomic bomb going off. You know, it sounded like an atomic bomb going off,” said Bethea.
“When I felt it, okay, it’s like something you felt. And it just came in. And my first instinct was just, just run out that back door. Don’t look nowhere else. Don’t do nothing else. Just run out the door,” said Bethea.
The neighboring house is gone but the aftermath is still clearly visible. The house Frank’s family was living in is now condemned.
“From the bathroom, there ain’t no bathroom no more. My daughter’s room, I’m thankful my daughter wasn’t in that room,” said Bethea.
“Her room right now is covered with bricks and all type of… and on her bed and everything is just covered, you know,” said Bethea.
The good news is Frank says the kids are out of the hospital.
“The youngest one, Jacob, he got it the worst, because his back’s got stitches in there,” said Bethea.
“It just like cut him all up in his back. And my daughter, she sustained glass markings all through her arms, her wrist, her feet. And my other son, he got cut up all on his feet,” said Bethea.
He says the kids are still jumpy every time they hear a loud noise and they’re not the only ones impacted.
“Every time I close my eyes I see it. I see it every time I close my eyes,” said Bethea.
As for the cause of the explosion, he says a woman, a squatter had previously been in the home and had somehow manipulated the gas line.
The gas was supposed to be off but somehow, she was able to access it.
“It’s just traumatizing at the end of the day. I’m just grateful that my kids are okay. That’s all I’m really worried about,” said Bethea.
Now I reached out to DTE and the Detroit Fire Department for any updates on the investigation, but I have not heard back. The Detroit Fire Department says no one died in the explosion.
If you want to help the family get back on their feet, they have a GoFundMe.
