Victims recover after gas line explosion

ALEX, Okla. -- Witnesses are amazed and relieved that anyone survived a large gas explosion early Friday morning in Grady County. People said they felt the explosion several miles away, and could see the flames, or at least the glow in the sky, from as far as twenty miles away.

Grady County Fire

Witnesses are still shocked by the enormous blaze that resulted from the explosion.

"Sounded like an airplane coming in over the house, and we looked back toward the west and it was a bright yellow glow. And it was just like I'd never seen anything quite that bright," witness Barbara Beasley said.

Venita and Al Parker live less than a half mile from the spot where the pipeline blew and the flames erupted.

"I mean, we thought it was right out here in our yard," Venita Parker said.

They felt the heat of the fire inside their home, and could only imagine what it was like at the homes right next to it.

"I don't know how those people...I don't know how any of them got out of that thing alive," Al Parker said.

The single mom and son, who lived in one of the three houses that were destroyed in the blaze, lost everything including their car. A close friend of the victim said the mother or her son were not injured.

"They got out okay, she said they tried to get out the front door, but couldn't get out for the flames, and went out the back door and over the fence," the victim's friend Ruth McCoy said.

The mother even went into work after the explosion. McCoy said her friend will have plenty of support though to get back on her feet after the fire.

"She'll have lots of help. She's got the boss here and her daughter that's really pitching in and helping her," McCoy said.

Police said the people who live in the third house that burned down were out of town Friday morning.