Jewell Myers felt the first “boom” from her next-door neighbor’s living room.
She leapt from her seat. The walls quaked. Glass shattered.
“That’s my house,” the 81-year-old said aloud, walking outside to find a plume of black smoke billowing from a pile of burning debris, where her home once stood at 6063 Doulton Drive.
A gas leak on Sunday ignited a massive explosion at Myers’ residence of nearly 50 years, nestled in a vast residential neighborhood in southeast Houston. A series of blasts knocked the home off its foundation, launched debris into neighbors’ yards and ignited fires at the adjacent properties.
Luckily, no one was injured. A strong gaseous odor inside the home prompted Myers to call CenterPoint’s emergency line and take refuge with the neighbor. Her husband, DeLover Burns, 81, waited in a car in the driveway as the home went up in flames.
“I just thank God that all of this stuff can be replaced in time,” said Myers. “But my life and his life couldn’t have been replaced.”
Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Michael Mire said it was “extremely fortunate” no one was injured or killed, and that the impact was mostly contained to three houses.
A spokesperson for CenterPoint said the cause of the gas leak remains under investigation.
Myers said she first smelled the gas Sunday morning from her bathroom. She went to the kitchen to take her medication and turned on the stove to make tea. A flame shot up from the burner with smoke emanating from the top.
“We need to get out of here,” she recalls saying.
The home exploded around 11 a.m., one hour after she called CenterPoint. She said the stove had not been left on. She guessed that it could have been caused by a malfunction on the appliance.
Since the blast, Myers has been trying to stay positive. She can’t help but cry when she thinks of all family mementos lost in the blaze, as well as her medication and clothes and furniture.
“It’s just hard to even look at,” she said.
She raised all of her six kids there. When she bought the home in 1971, her oldest was 13 and youngest was 3. She remembers the whole family sitting at a table, finishing schoolwork while she completed her work from nursing school.
“I grew up with my kids,” said Myers, who worked most of her life as a registered nurse.
On Tuesday, several of Myers’ children and grandchildren sifted through the charred remains. They recovered a few photos from a desk and an urn that protected the ashes of Myers’ second-oldest child. A Christmas Day ham was shoveled from a blackened freezer. Only the stove and the wooden shell of a room were left standing.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Myers and Burns recuperate. The couple is staying with her daughter in Missouri City until they can find a temporary place to live.
The loss devastated multiple generations of the family. Nicholas Mitchell, Myers’ 26-year-old grandson, visited the home Christmas Day with his mother for a typical holiday get-together.
He said he lived there for a time, and he fondly remembers watching fireworks from the roof.
“She had a perfect view of the city,” he said.
Joe Briscoe, Myers’ son-in-law, who lives in Georgia, recalls Myers’ skillful cooking and abundant meals.
“Talk about having a cook, she could do it — anything they wanted,” he said. “Just a beautiful time.”
Myers’ youngest daughter, Yvette Vanison, said they will cherish those memories forever.
“Most of all, (I’ll miss) the times we shared growing up in this house,” she said.
julian.gill@chron.com
The Link LonkDecember 30, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Hard-to-even-look-at-Mother-reflects-on-15835267.php
‘Hard to even look at’: Mother reflects on decades of memories in Houston home leveled by gas explosion - Houston Chronicle
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