Lacquer Fumes Explode in House, Injuring 3

A man spraying lacquer in a Thousand Oaks kitchen was seriously burned Sunday when the fumes, ignited by an oven pilot light, exploded in a fireball that wrecked the house and rattled the neighborhood.

The blast caused an estimated $180,000 damage and sent two residents of the house at 2885 Marietta Circle to the hospital with less severe burn wounds, authorities said.

“It had to be a helluva fireball,” said Peter Cronk, an investigator for the Ventura County Fire Department. “It moved down a hallway and out the window with so much force it bent the window-screen frames.”

The painter, Allan Parfitt, 29, of La Puente, was in serious condition Sunday evening in the acute burn unit at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital, with second- and third-degree burns over 40% of his body.

Susan Ashford, 37, was in fair condition in the hospital’s intermediate burn unit with second- and third-degree burns on her hands and forearms. Her son, Timothy, 11, was treated for minor burns at Los Robles Regional Medical Center and released.

Investigators said Parfitt works with Ashford and had come over to do the painting Sunday morning.

Ashford’s husband, Tom, was outside and escaped injury. Knowing the flammability of the fumes, he had stepped out before lighting a cigarette, Cronk said.

Another son, Ryan, 14, said he was watching a football game on television in his parents’ bedroom when the explosion occurred at 10:26 a.m. The force blew the glass and blinds out of the bedroom windows, he said, but he was not hurt.

Dashing into the smoke-filled hallway, Ryan saw the silhouettes of two people fleeing the house, he said. He said he ran back into the bedroom, dialed the 911 emergency number and fled as smoke began to overwhelm him.

Across the street, Melissa Nolan and her mother were in their kitchen when the blast rattled windows throughout the house. “My mother thought my little brother had run into the glass door,” Melissa, 15, said.

They saw flames shooting from the Ashfords’ windows and ran outside, where they found Timothy collapsed on the lawn and the other burn victims lying nearby. Melissa and her mother ran back into their house and got wet towels to drape over the burns.

County fire officials said the explosion occurred because Parfitt did not adequately ventilate the room while applying the highly combustible lacquer to kitchen cabinets. The fumes were concentrated because of a plastic tarpaulin in the doorway between the kitchen and the family room.

Ryan Ashford said the fireball melted the tarp and blew the hot plastic into the family room and onto his mother and brother, causing some of their burns.

The fire took about 50 minutes to bring under control and was extinguished within 90 minutes, Battalion Chief Frank Tinsley said.

Most of the roof remained intact, but the interior of the house was gutted, Cronk said. “The painter was lucky to get out of there in the shape he did.”