‘Horrifying’: Tiny Arkansas community mourns loss of family killed in Michigan blast

As Northfield Township police continue to investigate what caused a house explosion that killed four family members who were visiting from Arkansas, many in their hometown are grieving.

"Yesterday, I was crying on and off all morning — thinking about them," family friend Matthew Rooney, 40, told the Free Press. "I can’t get it out of my head. I just keep imagining their last moments."

Hope and Don Bragg, 51 and 53, along with their three children — Kenny, a 22-year-old Michigan Tech student; Beth, a 19-year-old college freshman in Arkansas, and Stephen, 16 — were in the house with Hope’s father, Rich Pruden.

Rooney — who said he was a family friend and colleague and has a son in the same school as Stephen, who, along with Pruden, survived and is hospitalized — called the unexplained Saturday afternoon explosion "horrifying."

Early Tuesday, national news outlets were reporting more details, and the Democrat-Gazette, which is sold throughout Arkansas, said mourners were holding candlelight memorials at St. Mark Catholic Church, where the family worshipped.

By the afternoon, local officials were holding a brief news conference to confirm the victim's identities and shed more light on what may have caused the explosion. Pruden, and the youngest Bragg, police said, were in the hospital, in critical and stable conditions, respectively.

Investigators had not yet determined why there was an explosion, but it likely was caused by some kind of gas.

"We have an undetermined fuel air explosion," Northfield Township Police Lt. David Powell said, noting he did not know whether any gas appliances had been recently installed, and there was no evidence that there was a meth lab in the home.

The investigation, he added, could take "a long time" to piece together.

In the meantime, township officials announced GoFundMe campaigns, at gofund.me/a66542b0 and gofund.me/59c482f0, had been set up to help defray medical and other expenses for the explosion survivors, and a vigil has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at Whitmore Lake High School, 7430 Whitmore Lake Road.

"There's nothing left of the property," Powell said. "I've never seen anything like it."

A police photo shows the blast leveled the house in the 8200 block of Winters Lane, shattering two-by-fours, and turning them into toothpicks. The explosion, the police report said, scattered debris over an area of more than 2 acres.

Rooney said Hope and Don Bragg were visiting Michigan for the holidays. Although they lived in Arkansas, they often vacationed in the Midwest. Police said the home they were in was built in 1979.

Saturday, township police said that three were killed. By Sunday, however, they confirmed to the Free Press the death toll had climbed to four, with two more in the hospital.

Don and Hope Bragg, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported, were a Forest Service scientist and a University of Arkansas Extension Service 4-H instructor, respectively, adding that they were originally from the Midwest.

But the Democrat-Gazette added that the couple moved to Arkansas decades ago, and had become a vital part of the small community with a population of a little more than 8,000.

The Braggs were involved, the newspaper said, in state and local archaeological activities.

Don Bragg, Rooney said, had a doctorate and taught at the University of Arkansas, Monticello; while Hope, was still earning her doctorate, and seemed to know someone everywhere she went in the city.

On Facebook, the College of Forestry, Agriculture, and Natural Resources posted that it mourned "the tragic loss of two of our colleagues and friends," and confirmed, "Don and Hope Bragg were lost along with their daughter and one of their sons in a house explosion."

Kenny, the oldest of Hope and Don’s children in the home, was preparing to graduate from Michigan Tech, Rooney said.

While Beth — who Rooney recalled "made the best desserts," particularly her cheesecakes — had just left home in the fall to start college at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Stephen, a student in the Monticello School District, survived the blast.

But, Superintendent Sandra Lanehart said in a social media post, said Stephen has a "broken pelvis and lacerated liver." And Pruden, she added, is "in a coma,”"with burns to 20% of his body.

She asked for prayers for Stephen, his family, their friends, colleagues, and classmates, and ended with a touching verse from Psalms about healing broken hearts.

"They were some of the most generous and kind people I’ve ever known and had the pleasure to be around," Rooney said on his Facebook page. "I wish it had been far longer. We’ve really lost out big time."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Deadly Northfield Twp. explosion devastates tiny Arkansas community