For more than a week, hospital beds have been the home of a 6-year-old boy and his father after their house exploded in Austell, severely burning both of them.
For the child, that’s no longer true because he was released from the hospital, his family told Channel 2 Action News on Thursday. His father, who remains hospitalized, is being hailed as a hero for rushing back into the home and saving his son.
On June 30, John Mark and his son Joshua were sleeping upstairs in their Hasty Lane home when it suddenly exploded. The explosion caused both of them to fall through the floor and into the flames.
RELATED: Father, 6-year-old son severely burned in explosion at Cobb home
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
“(My husband) came out and he went back to get Joshua,” Charla Mark, John’s wife, told Channel 2. “That’s why (John) got more burned.”
Charla said she was at work when the home exploded, reducing it to charred rubble. She found out about the incident when she received a call from paramedics.
“I was crying. I was weeping. I fell to the floor,” she told the news station. “But I thank God they are alive.”
Her son’s face, body and arms were all severely burned. But even with several more appointments scheduled with doctors, his injuries did not crush his spirit, Channel 2 reported.
“We believe in miracles, and God did it,” Blessing Azonwu, Joshua’s aunt, told the news station after she flew from Los Angeles to be with her family.
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
It remains unclear when John will be able to leave the hospital. A GoFundMe page, which was created to help the family, had raised more than $2,300 as of Thursday afternoon.
The cause of the explosion hasn’t been determined and remains under investigation by Cobb County firefighters.
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