ALPHA - From the exterior of the Snyder home, nothing seems amiss. Once inside, though, the damage is hard to miss.

Bowed walls, doors and floor joists, blown windows, broken dishes and melted items are evidence of the accident that irrevocably changed the family's life. Most notably, Danny Snyder's life.

On Oct. 19, Danny, 31, was attempting to light his home furnace's pilot light. A company had just moved the house's LP tank and offered to relight the furnace's pilot light. Danny declined.

"I've done this a million times before, so I knew exactly what I was doing," he said.

What Danny didn't know was LP gas had been leaking into the basement through a faulty valve on the furnace. Because he'd been outside during the LP tank move, his nose had grown accustomed to the smell of the gas. He couldn't detect the leak in the basement.

When Danny couldn't get the pilot light fired up, he stood up to see if the lighter was faulty.

"When I lit it, I saw a blue pencil-like stream flame across the room. I knew then something was wrong," he said.

But he didn't have time to react. In a split second, flames flashed through the basement and up the stairs. The flare was followed by an explosion that rocked the home off its foundation. The initial burn of fuel and oxygen up through the basement caused the fire to snuff itself out immediately.

Brad Wickham, a firefighter, medic and Snyder's childhood friend, was first on the scene.

"I was about eight miles away when I got the page," Wickham said. "I didn't know where I was going. I didn't realize the address was his. My first instinct was their little girl."

Luckily, their preschooler, Jaden, wasn't home. Danny's wife Janet had sent her to the neighbor's house to play. But Janet was home and suffered minor burns from the blast. Danny wasn't so lucky.

He suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands, arms, face and legs. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in West Union, then airlifted to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he spent nine days in the burn unit.

The healing process began with multiple skin grafts before Danny was sent to Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo for inpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation. He came home a few days before Thanksgiving. He continues outpatient physical therapy three days a week at Community Memorial Hospital in Sumner.

"He is doing very well," said Kathy Snyder, his mother. "He is very optimistic."

Danny is an avid outdoorsman and had been concerned that the burns to his hands and arms would inhibit his ability to hunt. His worries immediately abated.

"The day after he came home he went coon hunting with my husband," Kathy said. "Nothing was going to stop him from getting in that truck and going out there."

Danny considers himself blessed. A hard hat he was wearing at the time of the explosion protected his head from impact and burns. Glasses protected his eyes.

Damage to the home revealed the power of the blast. Pieces of the shower surround on the main level were blown through the exterior walls and came to rest in the yard. Melted bathrobes hung on a bathroom door hook.

"It even took the lids and caps off the shampoo and soap bottles," Danny said.

Rehab is coming along well for Danny. He hopes to go back to his job at Aveka Manufacturing in February. Their insurance company has declared their home uninhabitable, so the family is staying with his parents.

Wickham has helped organize a fundraiser for the family to help with medical and living expenses. Organizations and individuals from several communities have pitched in to help.

"I really appreciate everything. It's surprising the support people have given. I didn't even know I knew that many people," Danny said, chuckling.

Contact Meta Hemenway-Forbes at (319) 291-1483 or meta.hemenway-forbes@wcfcourier.com.