Woman in Stove Blast Dies; Father, Brother Fight for Life : Fire: Propane appliance that started fatal blaze was illegally set up in a second kitchen of cramped house, authorities said.

A 23-year-old woman died Wednesday of burns suffered when a propane stove exploded as she was cooking, but her father and brother continued to struggle for life after being injured by the blaze in a cramped house they shared with another family.

Authorities said the portable stove was illegally set up in a second kitchen unit in the home on McLean Drive. City officials are investigating whether the homeowner, who rented the rear of the house to the woman’s family, provided the appliance, said Santa Ana Building Safety Manager Jim Lindgren.

Kim-Anh Mai died at 1:30 a.m. at UCI Medical Center in Orange from her burns, said Simon Madorsky, a physician with the hospital’s burn unit. Her father, Dong Viet Mai, and brother, Loc Tan Mai, remained in critical condition Wednesday.

The young woman died 10 hours after the explosion and fire, which occurred as she cooked dinner for her family, who had moved about a month ago into a small apartment set up in the back rooms of the house at 1309 N. McLean Drive.

“Every time I close my eyes I see her, burned, black and all curled up,” her mother, 45-year-old Nam Le, said in an interview at the hospital. “We just came over here (from Vietnam) expecting things to be better. And now this happens.”

Property records show the residence belongs to Du Sonny Son, who could not be reached for comment.

The Mais used the family room as a dining room and a makeshift kitchen. The stove was set up along with a propane tank on a table against a wall.

Lindgren said the building safety code prohibits the installation of a propane-fueled stove in a house already equipped with a natural gas stove to keep people from connecting the two different systems.

Burners fueled by propane and those fed by natural gas “are just not compatible,” he said.

The homeowner had obtained a permit in 1990 to build an additional family room, two bedrooms and a bathroom, but the city never permitted a second kitchen in the house, Lindgren said.

“We will look into it,” Lindgren said, adding that if the house’s owner is found responsible, “we will refer the matter to the city attorney. It would be up to him to consider charges.”

When the Mais moved into the house, they requested a separate stove for their section of the house, a neighbor said. The existing kitchen in the structure already had a gas stove.

“It’s portable, but it wasn’t installed in the wall, so we assumed that it was (legal),” said Bach Nguyen, who lived with his family in the home’s front rooms.

Dong Viet Mai,56, brought his family to California eight months ago under an agreement between the United States and North Vietnam allowing former re-education camp prisoners to resettle in America. He had spent seven years in Communist camps after 1975 for having been a military officer with South Vietnam’s army, his wife said.

Her husband and children have only been able to find temporary work and their welfare payments end next month, Le said.

She and My-Linh Mai, a 21-year-old daughter, came back to the gutted home Wednesday afternoon and found that nothing remained except scraps of burned cloth and a singed autograph book from My-Linh’s high school days. In it was the last photo taken of the family.

“Everything’s gone in that fire,” Le said between sobs. “I don’t even have money to bury my daughter. She doesn’t even have burial clothes.”

Le was taken after the fire to the Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center for smoke inhalation and released Tuesday night. Two other daughters escaped with minor injuries.

The loud explosion sent the family scrambling out of the building, said My-Linh Mai, who tried to smother the flames engulfing her father and 18-year-old brother. Their bodies were “on fire like torches,” she said.

“Then we didn’t see Anh,” she said. “We raced in through the fire, found her by the stove and dragged her out.”

The fire, meanwhile, had spread to the front of the house, where Dung Nguyen was painting a bedroom.

“I heard a loud explosion and I ran out of the room and the whole house was rumbling,” Nguyen, 18, said Wednesday. “It happened really fast. All the walls were shifting. . . . I remember running to the back of the house, then through the back door where I saw the people” in flames.

He lived in the front rooms with his two brothers and mother, none of whom were hurt. Bach Nguyen, 23, said his family also are renters and the home belonged to a brother-in-law.

The two brothers returned Wednesday afternoon to the scorched rooms to scavenge for what was left of their belongings.

“We just don’t know what to say,” said Bach Nguyen, lugging a plastic bag filled wet clothes, shoes, towels and linens to his truck.

Le and her daughters, meanwhile, were staying with a distant cousin who is renting rooms in a home nearby. Hospital social workers asked that anyone wishing to assist the family call (714) 839-7536.