A veteran firefighter was in surgery after being burned in a fire and gas explosion Monday afternoon at his Lawrenceville home.
John Cunningham, a 49-year-old captain with the Milton Fire Department, was burned on his hands, forearms and torso and was in surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital about 3 p.m., his wife, Tammy Cunningham told reporters at the scene.
Cunningham was working in his basement around 1 p.m. when police and firefighters received a report of a fire and series of explosions at his home on Sundale Drive.
“He was awake, alert and talking with the rescue unit when we got here,” Tammy Cunningham said.
She said her husband had called her at work and said “I needed to come home.”
“He said the house exploded, and he got caught in the fire.”
The fire was quickly extinguished, said Jake Smith, a Gwinnett County police spokesman.
Bricks were knocked off the front of the home, and a railing on the front porch also was down, he said.
Three family pets died in the fire, said Lt. Colin Rhoden, spokesman for the Gwinnett Fire Department.
Hazmat and arson investigators were on the scene trying to determine the cause, Smith said.
There were initial reports that someone had been working on an air-conditioning unit in the house, Smith said.
“It seemed there was a natural gas explosion in proximity to where he was working,” Rhoden said.
The majority of the fire was confined to the front and side of the house, he said.
“There is substantial damage,” Rhoden said.
Cunningham has been with the City of Milton Fire Department since its launch in May 2007. Previously, he spent 26 years at the Fulton County Fire Department, where he retired.
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