An explosion rocked a Seminole neighborhood early Friday evening, leaving a local woman with severe bums to nearly 30 percent of her body.

Jacqueline “Jackie” Allen, 51, was alone in her home in the 1300 block of Eureka when it exploded, blowing its north and south walls out completely. The explosion occurred at around 7 p.m. on Jan. 15.

Three men, including Terry Fox, rushed inside and pulled Allen to safety. When emergency crews arrived, she was reportedly standing in her driveway.

Allen was treated on scene by paramedics with the Seminole Fire Department then flown to an Oklahoma City hospital with second and third-degree burns. Family members say she was scheduled to undergo surgery on her hands Monday and was expected to remain in the hospital for about three weeks.

“I live a block over and happened to be outside when I heard the explosion,” Fox said. “As I turned, I saw the flames over the houses. My daughter had just pulled up, so I told her drive me over there.”

Fox said when they arrived at Allen’s house, they saw smoke and debris in the yard and could see that the windows had been blown out. Two other men, who have not been identified, arrived on scene to help rescue Allen from the house, which was still burning.

“There was glass all the way to the street. The ceiling and walls were blown out, rafters and all. There was insulation everywhere,” Fox recalled.

“The neighbor across the road came and told us a lady lives there and gave us her name. We begin hollering for her and she began hollering back ‘help me.’ We couldn’t see her but had to listen for her voice,” Fox said.

According to Fox, he tried lifting the ceiling off Allen so one of the other men could pull her out, but he was unsuccessful at first.

“Another guy came in and pulled her out as we held the ceiling up. I knew we needed to hurry because nothing was holding the roof up and you could hear gas,” Fox said.

“At that moment I didn’t even think about myself. I just knew someone was in there and we needed to hurry and help get her out. I know God put me there at that moment to help her,” Fox said.

According to Judah Sheppard of the Oklahoma Fire Marshal’s Office, a gas leak was likely to blame for the explosion, but the source of ignition remained under investigation at press time.