Sumpter man at Burn Center after home explosion

A Sumpter Township man is in the University of Michigan Burn Center after his home at 29170 Martinsville Rd. blew up at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20. The home is completely destroyed.
Fire Chief Rick Brown said the homeowner has burns over 40% of his body including his arms, face, and chest.
He said he was informed by police that the man said he went into the house and it exploded. One television report said he had been thrown into the crawl space by the blast. Fire fighters were unable to interview the man because he was being loaded into the ambulance just as the fire department arrived to fight the fire.
He said the windows were blown out to the road, so the fire definitely started inside the house, but there is nothing to go by as far as what started it.
Chief Brown said the foundation had been blown away from the home. He said no natural gas is available in the area and firefighters found the propane turned off. Later, Chief Brown said he learned that the homeowner told a fire fighter in the ambulance that he got up and turned off the propane tank after the explosion.
A neighbor told Channel 2 that the man had lit a cigarette before going into his house.
Michigan Consolidated and DTE came out and couldn’t see anything, Chief Brown said.
Chief Brown said it was an LP [propane gas] explosion, but the source is unknown. It probably started in the kitchen, he said citing evidence at the scene. He said he didn’t know if there is insurance on the home, but if there is they will be sure to investigate and that will take some digging in the remains of the building.
Chief Brown said the man’s wife came home an hour after the explosion. She was informed that her husband had been taken to the hospital and left at once. Their two sons were not home.
Chief Brown said there was cosmetic damage on the house next door. The man’s mother had told Channel 7 News that her son had hooked up the newly filled propane tanks at both her house next door and his house to get ready for winter. That reportedly was a couple of days before the explosion.
His cousin Jamie Craig told Channel 2 News, “We are very, very fortunate. The only way we can explain it is he truly had an angel. God was walking with him because there’s no way he could have made it out of this house.”
The man’s mother, Vanessa Barrett, told Channel 7 News, “He said that it blew his shoes off him and the only reason the rest of his body wasn’t burned was because his clothes were fire retardant. He had just come home from work and he still had his uniform on.”
Barrett told Channel 7 the home is insured and they have amazing family support.