Explosion

From the Orlando Sentinel-

MELBOURNE -- Police focused their investigation Thursday on whether the theft of a clothes dryer led to a gas leak and explosion in a public-housing complex that killed an 18-year-old man and his 8-month-old daughter.

"Our condolences go out to the family, but we are going to investigate this," said Cmdr. Ron Bell of the Melbourne Police Department.

Using a search warrant, police found a dryer in the victims' shattered town home in Tucker Heights, Bell said. Next door, a dryer was missing from the unoccupied unit where the blast began, he said. Police will check the serial number on the dryer to see whether it is the missing appliance.

Joshua Jackson died with his infant daughter, Ja' miyah, after the 3 a.m. explosion Wednesday rocked the complex on Mathers Street, destroying four homes and injuring seven other people.

The baby's mother, Amanda Lewis, 20, who escaped, insisted Thursday that the couple didn't have a dryer and had to haul laundry to relatives' homes.

She and Jackson's parents also said the young father would never have stolen a dryer or tampered with gas lines.

"He would not have endangered his family," said Wayne Clay, who is engaged to Amanda Lewis' mother, Latasha Lewis. "He loved them too much.''

During his second news conference in two days, the family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, said he had warned his clients not to be surprised if authorities "try to blame the victims."

"What they are trying to do is allege it's their fault for her losing her boyfriend and her baby," said Crump, a Tallahassee lawyer who represents the family of a 14-year-old boy who died last year at a state-run boot camp.

"Amanda is emphatic there was no dryer there when they went to sleep," Crump said. "They had only been there a week, and they had never had a dryer."

Unless police are lying,(TFM is not one to always side with the police) a stolen dryer was there and if improperly installed could have caused the explosion. As to loving your child and never endangering them, it happens far too often. Click here and here for examples of Floridan's foolishness when it comes to their kids.

It's too early to say what happened in Melborne. Say a prayer for the dead and Amanda Lewis.

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