Rusk, TX – An elderly East Texas couple was burned in a gas explosion that a relative says probably saved their lives.
Wendell and Jean Nealey were hospitalized after the explosion Monday night at their trailer, Cherokee County Sheriff Capt. John Raffield said.
The couple lit a heater and the gas ignited when the woman lit a cigarette, he said.
Doctors told family member Terra Loden that if the couple had gone to bed, the gas probably would have killed them in their sleep.
Loden says her great uncle suffered burns to 11 percent of his body and his wife 13 percent.
She said says the couple is in their late 70s or early 80s and she described their condition as stable.