Blackwell Family

This story below is from Shane's Instagram. I couldn't have told the story as well as he could. My cousin's have lost everything. Gentry is going to have to have more than one surgery on his broken leg and Lori has a fractured vertebra. They are staying with friends for now but in Mexico they don't have renter's insurance so they are going to have to start from scratch with all their own funds. Ember is going to be heading down to Mexico with clothes and anything that will fit in her CRV so if you have anything that you would like to send with her she is leaving the 25th of January.

"So most know from following family that Gentry and Lori's house had a propane leak and the gas pooled under the living room and exploded. The force of the blast shattered Gentry's leg, broke the ribs of a visiting brother, hurt Lori's back and messed up my wavy head of hair. I was in the kitchen and got knocked down and peppered with debris. Some of which was jalapeno poppers we were about to eat. Gentry said he was taking his first bite when the explosion happened. He did not have to fast before his surgery. 

Then the propane tank ruptured and the house caught fire. I made Gentry walk on his leg to get out of the wreckage. He had already compressed the sheared bones trying to get to Lori. He is a stud! They did support him (another guest for almost dinner named Ryan...he later saves Dad and I from dying of smoke inhalation by helping tear a jammed garage door off its tracks where we were trapped- it was filling with smoke.) 

Meanwhile Dad is in the back bedroom unable to move or walk, lying in bed watching flames shooting into the window from the venting tank. His eyes were as big as basketballs when I got to him. I found out that I had picked a bad decade to stop working out. There was a wheelchair there but we could not get him into the seat. That was it...then John, a neighbor, came charging toward the fire through the smoke and helped me get Dad partway into the chair. All three of us rolled out of the room into the glass and debris-strewn hall. Dad slides out of the chair onto the floor. John grabs the heavy end and I got the legs and we lift dragged carried him out of the house into the courtyard. We were stuck. Smoke filling the area. Gentry was laying against a car and impressed another passerby to get the garage door opened. Then the fire department arrived. All saved!"