JANESVILLE — A Fond du Lac woman died May 28 after a propane gas explosion in a mobile home at the Rock River Leisure Estates in rural Edgerton, authorities say.
Judith Vannasdale, 69, died from injuries in the May 22 house fire at 530 East Ellendale Rd. near Newville just south of the Rock River, according to a release Friday from the Rock County Medical Examiner.
Lakeside Fire Rescue Chief Randy Pickering told The 69 on Friday that a male, Vannasdale’s spouse, is still in treatment at the University of Wisconsin Hospital burn unit in Madison for severe burns he sustained in the explosion. Authorities have not named him in relation to this incident, but records identify Judith Vannasdale’s husband as Philip Vannasdale.
Pickering said the source of the fire — and the explosion — was a “liquid propane gas” leak that ignited the mobile home, and severely burned the couple, who apparently were inside at the time.
Pickering characterized Philip Vannasdale’s injuries as being “severe,” and resulting from the propane explosion, too.
A maintenance worker at the mobile home park pulled the two out of the burning home, officials said.
Pickering said fire authorities are still investigating what might have caused the propane to leak at the mobile home, alongside what might have made the leaking gas ignite and spark the explosion.
“Those are two different things,” he said.
Pickering said the investigation, which focuses in part on what the couple were doing immediately prior to the conflagration, could take some time, in part because Philip Vannasdale remains hospitalized and is unable to communicate information about the fire.
The fire department is told that as of Friday, Vannasdale is “holding his own” in the hospital.
The Rock County Sheriff’s Office and the Rock County Medical Examiner’s Department continue to investigate the causes of the leak and explosion.
