One year ago today, August 2nd, 2017 at 10:23 AM, my family’s life changed forever. My dad was at work inside Minnehaha Academy when the school exploded due to a gas leak. Two of his colleagues, both of whom he had spoken to just minutes before the blast, were killed. My dad was one of the nearest people to the blast site when the explosion occurred, was thrown down a hallway, and knocked unconscious. The middle portion of the school, including his office, was dissolved into a pile of rubble and mangled metal. It was really by a miracle that he had not been working in his office at the time of the explosion. He had just been in his office a few minutes earlier, and was about to go back up to his office when the building exploded. I was driving through Kansas on the way to a friend’s wedding when I heard the awful news….my heart dropped into my stomach as I made the realization that if it was indeed a gas explosion, my dad and his guys were most likely in close proximity to what happened. I knew those hallways like the back of my hand, having run around them since I was 4 years old. As soon as I saw the video on my friend’s phone, I knew that my dad’s office was gone and I just had to pray that my dad wasn’t.
*this post was written on my dad’s laptop computer that had been sitting on his desk when the school exploded and was pulled from the rubble on December 6th, 2017. That is 4 months and 4 days after the explosion occurred and it STILL WORKS. It’s those small miracles that show me God has had His hand in every small part of this horrible situation*
So many pieces of this story and firsthand accounts I’ve heard from other people that were in the school when it exploded have highlighted some of my most cherished qualities in my dad.
He deeply cares for people: When he heard the call over the radio that there was a gas leak, he immediately ran through the school’s main office because he knew that’s where all the people were. And he hadn’t gotten very far down the internal office hallway to run out of the building, because he was waiting for one of the office ladies so he could help her get out of her office and leave the building with him.
He doesn’t overreact: Even though he had blood dripping down the back of his legs and his arms as he was walking out of the building, he told my mom “I have a few cuts but I’m okay” which ended up REALLY being 125+ cuts all over the back of his body, a concussion, hearing loss, and some deep lacerations that required stitches.
He puts other people before himself: He was told multiple times to get into the ambulance to go the hospital to get checked out, but evaded the EMTs each time because he knew he needed to make sure all of his employees were accounted for before he would think about himself.
He has a high sense of responsibility: He went back to work at the regular time the next morning after the explosion. As the Director of Facilities, his brain is full of 35+ years of knowledge about the buildings and what would need to happen next, and he knew that he needed to be there to help piece their world back together. He couldn’t just sit at home recovering and ignore his responsibilities of taking care of the buildings.
So this post is a tribute to my dad and the other heroes of that day.
- Donnie, my dad’s colleague, who was the first to notice the gas leak and ran back INTO the building to yell for people to get out.
- The police officers and firefighters that were first on the scene, rescuing Bryan Duffey from the rubble and searching for the 2 missing faculty members.
- The members of the Minnehaha community (current and past Minnehaha families, alumni, and faculty) that got a new high school location up and running within 15 days.
- The leadership of the school, whose jobs drastically changed in the aftermath of the explosion, but who have been flexible amidst those changes and added responsibilities, wanting to see the best for the school moving forward.
- To the other faculty members that were in the building and their family members — we will forever be connected in a way that we never would have chosen to be.
And although this past year has been full of too many medical appointments, changes, and new concerns to count, it has also been full of a new appreciation for the everyday things, full of the support and prayers of family and friends, and the firsthand knowledge that no matter what happened on August 2nd, 2017, the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews 13:8]
