Kingman, AZ Explosion, Jul 1973

I'm a burn survivor of the Kingman Arizona disaster/explosion which accured July 5th 1973. I was eleven years old at the time,we had a wonderful 4th of July at the grand canyon, we left the grand canyon on July 5th to continue are vacation to las vagas. We were calif. residents on vacation,we needed to stop and get gas,so we took the kingman exit.There was a fire (huge).It scared me because it was so loud it sounded like contious thunder. I told my dad I was scared, he said not to worry he was unaware of what was on fire, he though it was a house or wood, but certainly not a propane tanker, it was a 127k-33,500 tanker.We stopped at a gas station and my dad started filling the gas tank. He was even more convinced we were safe,why would the gas station was still pumping gas, obviosly like us they were not informed on what was on fire, I heard stories of people being told to leave the area by law inforcement, they were the fortunate ones,as my dad was filling the tank I went into the womens bathroom.I was in the restroom when my dad finally found out what was on fire,he ran to find me and my brother, my brother was in the gas station store getting a snack, as I walked out of the bathroom, the propane tanker exploded ! I didn't know what was happening to me,I remember feeling pain, like nothing I had ever felt before. I started running as fast as I could to get away from the horrible pain I was experiecing, as I was running there were other people running and screaming. My memories of that day are a bit foggy. I was in and out of conciennies my memories of that day are these, As I was running to get away from the pain of my flesh burning. I remember hearing a boy, who was running near me. He kept yelling my mini bike, my mini bike he had to be in shock because I know he was feeling the pain I was.I must have lost conciesness at that point, after that, the next thing I remember there was someone trying to spray water on me, but the water was boiling hot, I beleive the temp outside was somewhere around 112 degrees very hot.I though I was on fire, but I found out later that the fire never touched me, even though I suffered 3rd degrees burns over 35% of my body. I was actually burned from the heat of the giant fire ball that blew off the tanker and burned the people like me. The next thing I remember a caring couple took me into there home , I don't know where they found me, they tried to put me into a bathtub, when I looked at the tub, I could see that the couple were helping other burn victims, floating on the surface of the water was burn debree, once again I lost conciennes,the next thing I remember the couple put me in the shower,I lost conciesness again and vagly remember waking up in the back seat of there car.They took me to the crowed houspital once again I lost concienness , the next thing I remember I woke up sitting in a chair in the lobby I looked over at a boy sitting next to me he had big bubbles hanging off his arms,then I realized I was just like him, the local kingman hospital was in no way capable of being able to handle over 100 burn victums at once. The inside of that hospital was like a war zone, the lobby floor was covered wall to wall with people screaming in pain. It is the sounds and sites of what I experenced that still haunt me to this day.The next thing I remember remember waking up being airlifted to good samariton hospital in Phoenix. I don't think I was at the Kingman hospital more than an hour.There were 7 of us in critical condition so we were the first to be airlifted to good samariton hospital.I don't know how long I stayed at good samariton \before I was air lifted to orange county medical center which is well known for it's burn unit, I spent the next 2 months ar O.C.M.C. burn unit Dr. Bartlett was my doctor in the burn unit. The worst part of being in the burn unit was hearing people crying out all day &night (some died when I was there) . I will never forget the couple who took me into there home and to the hospital I don't know your names but you will always be in my heart!!
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A day I'll never forget I was 11 yrs. old and burned over 36% of my body with 3rd dregree burns. being at the wrong place at the wrong time ! I posted the story under the title day that changed my life.