Michelle Hunter
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
(TNS)
Dec. 2—A gas leak at the Avondale construction site of a Jefferson Parish library branch led to an explosion and fire at a nearby home, killing an 87-year-old woman and injuring five of her family members, including two children, Monday morning.
Jefferson Parish authorities did not identify the woman killed. But her relatives said she was Deloris Gabriel, a lifelong resident of the Avondale Gardens neighborhood.
“She was a great mother,” Gabriel’s son, McDouglas Gabriel, 62, said as he stood in a vacant lot across the street from her charred mobile home. “She would do anything for anybody.”
Two other of Deloris Gabriel’s adult sons were injured in the fire, according to family members, including Clarence Gabriel, who was severely burned while trying to rescue his mother.
The injured also include Deloris Gabriel’s grandchildren, a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, and their mother, relatives said. All were taken to a hospital, but no condition information was immediately available.
Loud boom
The Hebert Wallace Volunteer Fire Company was called out to the site of the new Avondale Library, at the corner of Avondale Garden Road and U.S. 90, at about 5:12 a.m. after receiving a report of a gas leak, according to Jefferson Parish Fire Director Don Robertson.
A crew laying concrete for the parking lot had backed a truck up over a gas line, according to Robertson. Authorities shut down the street as crews awaited the arrival of Atmos utility company.
Keirra Thomas, 31, lives next door to the Gabriel family and about a half-block from the construction site. She woke about 6:15 a.m. to the alarmingly strong smell of gas in the air. Within two minutes, she said, the Gabriels’ home exploded.
“All I heard was boom. The whole house shook. The glass shook,” Thomas said.
She ran outside and noticed flames shooting out of her neighbor’s front door. Then, she heard a woman — the mother of the injured children — screaming.
“Her hair was all burnt up,” said Thomas, who helped the woman take off her jacket.
Flames quickly overtook the house, she said.
Fire investigation
It’s not clear how the two children and the other adults escaped the residence. But Deloris Gabriel’s granddaughter, Zandra Simmons, 49, said Clarence Gabriel was severely injured while trying to get to his mother.
“He was burnt pretty badly,” she said.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies who arrived on the scene loaded the injured children into their vehicles and drove them to the hospital, according to Robertson.
Many family members who live on the same street and in the neighborhood overheard the explosion and quickly began gathering once they learned that it was Deloris Gabriel’s home ablaze. But they were forced to stand a block over because the smell of gas was still heavy in the air, they said.
The explosion and fire are still under investigation, according to Robertson. The State Fire Marshal’s Office and the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department responded to the scene to assist, along with the Avondale Volunteer Fire Company.
Authorities couldn’t yet say how the gas leak a half-block away led to the explosion inside the Gabriel’s home, according to Robertson.
Relatives said Deloris Gabriel, who was bedridden due to a stroke, kept a space heater in her bedroom. But it’s unclear if that played any role in the fire.
Strong woman
As the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office arrived to help remove Deloris Gabriel’s body, several dozen somber relatives comforted one another across the street and fondly remembered their matriarch.
Gabriel was the eldest and last surviving of her siblings, according to grandson Pernell Simmons, 52.
“She was a strong woman,” he said.
Gabriel was born and raised on the lot where the fire occurred. Her husband built a house there that was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, relatives said. That’s when the mobile home was put there.
Though slowed physically by her stroke, family members said Gabriel, known affectionally as “Welly,” had all of her mental faculties intact, and had no problem letting you know so.
“She was very smart,” said her niece, Everhelina Addison, 67.
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