On Christmas Eve, the Roescher family was in a fix. The Middletown house of Arthur Roescher, his wife Eleanor, and their two grown sons, Cody and Austin had run out of propane. The tank was empty.

“We called Monday, December 23,” Arthur told the Shawangunk Journal. “I was told that it would be five to seven days for a delivery. So, we were thinking it through for Christmas. How were we going to do this without a stove? We had an electric pot for the turkey, we had an electric roaster. We would figure it out.”

But the propane company, the family says, expedited the delivery. “I think they were trying to be nice.” Eleanor says. “Instead of five days they sent someone over the very next day.”

At which point, things went upside down. Eleanor says she believes the delivery man knocked on the outer door of their mud room, instead of the front door inside the mud room.

“We never heard him. So, they went ahead and filled the tank. But they didn’t check the pilot lights.”

Eleanor continues, “They called my husband, Art, up a little later and he asked them if they had checked the pilots. They said no.”

“Within a few minutes, right after he got off the phone with them, there was an explosion in the basement.”

The blast emanated from the cellar. The impact “moved the whole house three or four inches off the foundation,” according to Eleanor. An add-on room on the first floor was effectively ripped off of the rest of the house when the foundation shifted.

“We were extremely lucky, it turns out,” she says. “My son Austin was on the couch in the living room, he was thrown off and into the wall. My other son, Cody had to jump out a window. He was thrown up into the ceiling and broke a rib.”

Cody and Austin went to Garnet hospital. Eleanor herself escaped with just a badly bruised right foot. Art got out of it with just bumps and bruises and probably some PTSD. Their cat, Midnight, is okay. “Oh, he got out. We don’t know how, but he got out of the house. He’s fine.”

The family are staying for now at a Super 8 motel while they figure out what to do next. They feel lucky to be alive, but are coping with the fact that they lost everything in this Christmas disaster.

Meanwhile the landlord, the propane company, and insurance companies study the event and prepare for whatever comes next.

One detail that can’t be left out, and she did tell us this with a chuckle: “My husband is in a band, ‘80s-‘90s alternative rock – they’re called Flirting with Disaster.”

Arthur’s sister, Shondelle Luba of Greenfield Park, is also trying to help. She offered to take them in, but living in Greenfield Park would be tough for Art who mostly works in Middletown. Shondelle is setting up a GoFundMe to raise some money to help get a new roof over their heads. That link is at https://gofund.me/39849f77.

Arthur Roescher does construction. He can use more work. You can reach him at (845) 239-1932. They are in a dire situation. Eleanor says “He does everything, electrical you name it.”