One Killed, One Flown To Hospital After Cherokee County Fire

<p>Investigators confirmed one woman was killed, and a man is in the hospital following an explosion in Cherokee County.</p>

Friday, February 2nd 2018, 12:42 pm

By: Amy Slanchik


Investigators confirmed one woman was killed, and a man is in the hospital following an explosion in Cherokee County.

The State Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating to determine what caused the fatal explosion.

The moment the home exploded, Charles Taylor was at his garage sale across the street.

"It just blew up like dynamite," he said. "Pieces just flying everywhere - I said, 'Lord, help. What's going on?’"

As one man was flown to a Tulsa hospital, Taylor had heard someone else might still be inside.

"I started praying for whoever might be in there," he said.

Keys, Cookson and Chicken Creek firefighters had to fight the flames before searching for the woman, who was later found under rubble, unrecognizable.

The blast was felt beyond the scene.

"It shook my trailer," said David Ross, who lives two miles away. "I thought it was an earthquake"

Taylor said another man came down Highway 82 to find out what happened.

"He come down here and said he'd been in Vietnam. He said he fell to the ground when it happened," Taylor said.

While investigators work to figure out how the home exploded, Cherokee County Undersheriff Jason Chennault said, right now, it doesn't appear anything criminal happened.

"We've had three or four house explosions in the last couple of years. Every one of them seems to have been different, but this was, it looks pretty bad," Chennault said.

The man sent to the hospital is 27 years old but we don’t know his condition. The woman's name and age have not been released.

One woman said she just moved into the house recently and her grandson is the man that was flown to the hospital. The woman said a furnace repairman was at the home and the explosion happened when he left. It's not known if the explosion is connected.

Amy Slanchik

Amy Slanchik is passionate about storytelling. She joined the News On 6 team in May of 2016 after spending almost two years in Fort Smith, Ark. She is a proud University of Oklahoma graduate.

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