Family survives explosion, fire that destroys Summerlin home

Ed Koch and Stephen Curran

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

Gone is the Deffner family's 13-year-old gray Schnauzer "Jewels," Brenda Deffner's wedding gown and 8-year-old Dylan Deffner's Yu-Gi-Oh card collection. Missing is their 2-year-old cat Chealsey.

But the family is grateful today that they are alive after an explosion destroyed their four-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot home in Summerlin.

"We are very much so (grateful)," Brenda Deffner said this morning as she surveyed the extensive damage from the home of a neighbor who provided the family shelter after the explosion. "We haven't got a clue what happened."

The fire, which investigators think began in the garage about 12:30 this morning, gutted the home in the 400 block of Crocus Hill Street in Summerlin. An explosion was so violent that neighbors reported it blew the home's garage door into the street in front of the house, Tim Szymanski, a department spokesman, said.

Southwest Gas was called to the scene, but determined that natural gas was an unlikely culprit in the blaze as flames traveled away from a gas water heater in the garage, Roger Buehrer, a spokesman for the company, said.

Dylan Deffner said the fire response lessons he learned at Staton Elementary School last year paid off.

"We had fire drills every month and the fire department gave us directions and coloring books and we stopped, dropped and rolled a thousand times," Dylan said. "I'm glad the flames didn't shoot up to the ceiling. Otherwise we would have died."

After the explosion in the garage beneath the rooms where Dylan, his 4-year-old brother Devon, his father Dean and mother slept, the flames for some reason shot horizontally from the garage but not vertically.

Brenda said the loud explosion woke everyone and they all gathered and went out the door to safety "with just the clothes on our backs."

The aftermath this morning looked like something out of a war zone. The Toyota Sequoia and one-year-old Chevy Impala sedan in the garage were burned to shells.

After the explosion neighbors, grabbing their garden hoses, fought the intense blaze.

"I thought it was an earthquake at first," said Will Mitchell, who moved into his house, several down from the Deffner's home, eight months ago. "I ran down the street and saw the flames coming out of the garage and I was afraid that the family was still trapped inside. Then Dean shouted the family had all gotten out safely."

Mitchell and other neighbors stretched their garden hoses to the limit, but it did little to quell the raging flames.

He said the family could stay with him until they can find a permanent shelter.

Firefighters found the dog beside the house. The dog slept outside, the family said, but apparently could not escape the intense heat of the blaze.

The fire's intensity surprised even experienced fire crews, Szymanski said.

"It was tremendous to see how fast the fire spread," he said. "I have not seen that amount of damage to a house in a couple years. This was probably one of the worst house fires we've seen here."

The American Red Cross was also called in to help the family, Szymanski said.

The family said their homes and possessions were insured and an insurance adjustor was expected at the site of the fire today.

Brenda said she had taking the precaution of saving her prized photographs to discs and sent them to family members. The children's Yu-Gi-Oh cards were valued at up to $20 a card.

Brenda and Dean Deffner have lived in Las Vegas for four years but in that house less than a year.

Damage to the family's home, including their personal belongings and two cars, which were destroyed, was estimated at $600,000.