Wife of Marine killed in Coleville propane explosion
(Photo courtesy www.vietnamproject.ttc.edu)
On Friday Feb. 3 at approximately 8:53 p.m. the Mono County Sheriff’s Dispatch received numerous 911 calls regarding an explosion and a residential structure that was on fire at the U.S. Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC) Base Housing.
Upon arrival, medical personnel assisted the victims and fire personnel battled the fire, which was still engulfing the residence. Careflight responded and two of the victims were airlifted to hospitals out of the area, with another victim being pronounced deceased at the scene.
The following agencies were dispatched to the scene: Antelope Valley Fire Department, MWTC Fire Department, Mono County Paramedics, Mono County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol, MWTC Police Department, along with the East Fork Fire Department out of Nevada.
Mono County Social Services responded and opened the Walker Community Center for use as a shelter, if needed, and the Red Cross was contacted out of both California and Nevada.
According to the Associated Press, on Saturday, Feb. 4 the U.S Marine Corps identified Lori Hardin, 31, as the victim who died in a propane gas explosion that occurred in the housing unit in Coleville, Calif. Hardin was the wife of Gunnery Sgt. Greg G. Hardin of Tuolumne, Calif., a public works planner for the Marines Northern California training base north of Bridgeport off Hwy 108 near Pickel Meadow. Originally from Iowa, Lori was the mother of the couple’s two children.
Greg Hardin and their two children were not hurt in the Friday night explosion. The housing unit in Coleville serves the MWTC, where Marines train for mountain operations, including many conducted in Afghanistan and other high-altitude regions around the world.
The two other blast victims, a Navy corpsman and his wife, were flown to hospitals with serious injuries including third-degree burns, AP continued.
The corpsman was treated at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev., and was released Saturday, according to Fox News. His wife remained in critical condition at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, though her condition was improving, according to Marine spokesman Capt. Nicholas Mannweiler.
The couple has asked that their names not be released, Mannweiler said.
The explosion was related to the housing area’s propane distribution system, and was not associated with activities at the Marine base, which is about 30 miles away, according to the Marine Corps.
After safety inspections Saturday night, inspectors began testing the propane distribution system house-by-house for leaks or any other signs of trouble and ensuring that gas-powered appliances are re-lit and functioning properly, the Fox News article said. Families in homes found to have minimal damage began moving back in Sunday, and other families will be moved back in one by one throughout the coming week, Mannweiler said.
According to AP, “A total of 38 families were displaced from the military neighborhood in the Mono County town of Coleville.”
Twenty families had returned by late Sunday, and 18 remained displaced, Mannweiler said in the article. The explosion destroyed only one house at the center of the blast, but left 11 uninhabitable.
But the complex has exactly 11 vacant housing units that those families can move into, he added.
Other people suffered superficial cuts and bruises in the explosion, which is being investigated with help from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Located at an altitude of about 9,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada range near the Nevada border, the MWTC is one of the Marine’s most remote posts.
The base, which has about 160 Marines and 300 civilian employees, conducts unit and individual training for action in mountainous, high altitude and cold weather areas. –AP/Fox News/Mono County Sheriff’s Dept.
