The backhouse in Long Beach exploded as the victim was doing laundry, the victim’s wife said. Mekahlo Medina reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
After a backhouse in Long Beach exploded Monday morning, a man who survived the explosion is alert and recovering in a hospital intensive care unit, his wife said Tuesday.
Manny Fabrigas has a strong spirit despite third-degree burns to the arms and second-degree burns to the neck, face and feet, according to his wife Sheila, who said the backyard Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) exploded after her husband began doing chores.
The powerful blast lifted the roof off the home and scattered debris Monday morning with neighbors saying they could feel the explosion from blocks away.
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According to Sheila Fabrigas, her husband took the day off after a father-daughter cycling marathon over the weekend and was doing laundry when she called him to wash some sheets.
“According to him, he did wash the sheets. He threw the sheets in the dryer and walked out of the laundry room into the kitchen, and all he remembers (was) that he was thrown to the small pantry door,” Sheila Fabrigas said.
Neighbors rushed over to help and pulled the badly burned victim out of the rubble.
“We see a person coming out of the rubble, with skin peeled. It was gruesome,” said Juan Romero, a witness.
The Fabrigas family moved into the ADU a year ago in the backyard of their family’s house off 28th Street on Long Beach’s west side.
“They inspected before (moving) in. They had to inspect that it was safe to move in,” Sheila Fabrigas said.
But a notice from the city posted outside the explosion site said the ADU was not permitted.
City fire officials were investigating the cause of the explosion.
