BREAKING NEWS: Explosion destroys Corbin home; man severely burned

A Corbin man was severely burned, and his house was destroyed Friday afternoon after an explosion and subsequent fire consumed the residence on South Kentucky Street.

The incident ocurred some time around 12:30 p.m. Neighbors say, without warning, the single-story house in which 55-year-old Roger Anspach lived, simply collapsed and lit up immediately into a fiery inferno. They reported hearing a powerful explosion right before it caught fire.

"I was sitting at my door in this chair and it just went up and straight down," said Jewel Hanna, who lives across the street from 1913 S. Kentucky Street, the residence that was burned.

"The door to the place blew all the way over here. You could hear it. There was a loud pop before it caught on fire."

The explosion also destroyed a residence next to the home owned by Diane and D.J. Seibert. They’ve lived there for 26 years.

"I was just lying on our couch," D.J. Seibert said. "I thought our roof had collapsed."

"We couldn’t ever get out of our door because of what it did to our house," Diane Seibert said. "We’ve lived in this neighborhood for a long time and seen it change a lot. I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t know what we are going to do."

"We are fine, thank God," D.J. Seibert added, noting he spoke with a friend said he could see the fire from Northside Supply near the intersection of U.S. 25E and U.S. 25W.

Smoke from the fire was visible in the Williamsburg area.

According to witnesses, Anspach was severly burned over most of his body. He apparently lived alone and had rented the home for about two years. The home was owned by Wanda and Ledford Douglas who said they had never had any trouble out of Anstaugh as a renter.

"I heard a pop and it was on fire immediately," Seibert said. "He was burned really bad all over his body. I don’t know how anyone could survive that."

Allen Carmack, who works at CSX Raiload, was one of the first people on the scene.

Carmack said he was driving to lunch at a nearby restaurant when he heard and felt the explosion.

"The roof just lifted up," Carmack said, adding that someone he knew ran across South Main Street toward the house, yelling that something exploded.

Carmack drove over the scene and when he arrived, he said his friend was among the remains of the house with Anspach.

"The whole roof was on the ground except for about a 10 foot section in the back kitchen area," Carmack said, adding that Anspach was on fire with most of his clothes burned away and his underwear melted to his body.

"He was still on fire so once we got him to the yard, we rolled him a couple of times to get the fire out," Carmack said. 

Neighbors speculated the fire may have been caused by a natural gas explosion. Other neighbors speculated on alternate causes for the explosion. Corbin Police are currently investigating.

Bill Weidner, who lives across the street, said Anspach was a loner by nature. Neighbors knew who he was and knew he was home when they saw his truck, but didn’t really interact with him.

"Not one bit," Wanda Douglas said when asked if she had any issues with Anspach as a tennant.

A helicopter landing zone was established at the track behind Corbin High School. Anspach was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Radio reports indicated he had suffered burns over 90 percent of his body.

Check back often to www.thenewsjournal.net as more information becomes available.