WEST MONROE, N.Y.
Two people remained in critical condition Monday after being seriously burned in an explosion at the house into which they had just moved.
Firefighters said it appeared a propane tank exploded, destroying the Oswego County home of Curtiss and Maria Ling early Sunday morning.
West Monroe Fire Chief Dave Hanson said volunteer firefighters arrived to find the house ablaze and four people lying outside the ranch house.
Maria Ling, 30, was in critical condition at University Hospital in Syracuse
with first-, second- and third-degree burns. Curtiss Ling, 24, was in serious
condition with first- and second-degree burns.
Gabriel M. Blanchard, 8, was taken Sunday night to Shriners Hospital in
Boston where she was in critical condition with first-, second- and third-degree burns, a nursing supervisor said. Douglas Lokker, 12, was in fair condition with first- and second-degree burns.
The Lings and their children had moved into the house 15 miles north of
Syracuse earlier Saturday, neighbors said. Hanson said the family was from
Bernhards Bay, an Oswego County village on Oneida Lake.
Hanson said the Oswego County cause and origin team was investigating the blast as a gas explosion. Bisbo said there was a large propane cylinder in the yard.