Faith Through the Flames, Part One

While he lay in his hospital bed in the burn unit at Tampa General Hospital after a grill explosion on April 28 that burned 30 percent of his body, Bailey Richards, 26, is leaning on his faith, family, and a highly trained medical team to help pull him through.

Wife Stephanie Richards, expecting to give birth to their second child at any time, was shielded by her husband when the grill they were about to roast s’mores on exploded, injuring Bailey and their five-year-old son, Emmanuel. The s’mores were a giveaway from Stephanie’s baby shower two days earlier.

“We had just had our baby shower and inside the gift bags I had placed a little s'mores kit,” Stephanie said. A note attached to the gift bag read: “We’re adding s’more love to the Richards family."

“My son was really excited,” Stephanie said. "He wanted to make s'mores. We had promised him we would do it, so we were like, ‘Let’s do it real quick.’" We’re staying with his grandmother right now while we’re having a house being built. So we’re all together in the house.:

“Normally Bailey would have his own setup for his grill, but we had to buy a smaller grill just to keep at his grandma's house to cook dinners and stuff,” Stephanie continued. “I had actually asked about using one of the fire pits, but because it was rusted out on the bottom, Bailey said, ‘No, we're not going to use that because I don't want to start a fire or anything.’ So we moved on to his grill and we were probably just like five minutes in..."

"We were just starting the charcoal chimney stack,” Bailey said. "I put my charcoal in that and got the charcoal going. I was just going to use charcoal to roast the marshmallows, and once the coals got going, I picked it up and I went to go pour it in the grill. And some of the embers came off the back end, and there was a little box next to the grill that I didn't know had gunpowder in it. No one knew that it was even sitting there, apparently. And the embers hit the top of the box. They said the tin was closed, but somehow it ignited the tin and the tin blew up and this big old cloud of fire came at me.”

Glenda Hancock, Bailey’s grandmother, had recently moved the gunpowder to the porch from a shed where it had been stored. The gunpowder had been used by her late husband, Chris, who used it to load bullets.

"I just feel so guilty and so stupid every time I relive it,” Hancock said. "Chris had a bunch of his reloading stuff down in his shed. And when he passed away, I tried to dispose of as much as I could. But I didn’t know how to dispose of the gunpowder. So it sat there for a long time until we tore the shed down. I brought the gunpowder to the back porch, thinking that would be a good place for it to be because I didn't think there would be any exposure to fire."

"It wasn't even the whole tin of gunpowder,” Bailey said. "It was just a quarter of the tin.”

Stephanie, who was directly behind Bailey, escaped significant injury. Bailey thought Emmanuel, who they often call Manny, was behind him, too.

"I thought he was right there behind me,” Bailey said. "I didn't realize that he had ran off onto the porch before that had happened, so he got a little further away. The flame was still big enough that it got the back of his arms and stuff, but he healed within a week and a half. Soon, all those young cells were able to go to work faster. Stephanie was right behind me. And if I wasn't standing there, I'm sure she would have gotten burned worse.”

Perhaps because of his family background, Bailey instantly knew what had happened and how to react.

“It was instant,” he said. "I realized what had happened. I didn't realize that it was TNT. I was like, ‘What? Why did that explode?' But I understood that there was an explosion and that I had caught fire. My dad's a wildland firefighter, and my cousin Dustin and his younger brother Alex are working fire and EMT. So, just all my whole life it's been if you’re on fire, stop, drop, and roll. It's just been instilled in me. Nobody believes me but the first thing I did was stop, drop, and roll. There's a little incline down to our shop. I just jumped and launched myself toward that and just let gravity take me down.”

It took Stephanie some time to process what was happening.

"I was shocked and I sat there for like a second before I realized what was going on, but Bailey had already stopped, dropped, and was rolling. It was lucky he had that instilled in his head."

Inside the house, Hancock heard—and felt—the explosion. Then heard loud screaming.

"I'll never forget the scream I heard,” Hancock said. "It sounded like it was an animal. I jumped up off my bed and ran towards where the light was, where the bang was. I thought my dryer had caught on fire. I thought the dogs were excited because they get excited if they hear loud noises. I thought it was one of them screaming, not thinking that it might have been Manny, but it was just such an odd noise.”

"Luckily, Manny ran off as quick as he did,” Stephanie said, "but he's getting to that stage where he's watching things. So when he sees something bright, he'll instantly notice and try to back away. I've noticed that he's been a lot more observant with things. He said that he heard it and just instantly ran inside as quick as he could, which was great because right afterward, you could see little fires where the embers had fallen were starting to catch things on fire. So I was happy that he had run inside as quick as he did. I guess some of the doors were blown open."

Hancock looked out and saw Bailey rolling.

"Once I got down, I was just rolling back and forth and I heard my grandma yelling, 'Bailey, stop!' Because I just didn't realize where I was, I just realized I was on fire at that point and I was trying to put it out.”

As he rolled, engulfed in flames, Bailey questioned whether he was going to live or die.

“Yeah, there was that thought,” he said. "I didn't know how deep it was. And even after the fire was out, it still felt like I was burning until I got up. Once I got to Tampa General and I was actually able to process everything is when I realized that I'd be okay. But up until that point, I didn't know if I was going to make it or not. I didn't know if the burns got my chest or if it was just my arms. All my nerves in my whole body felt messed up beyond what was actually burned.

"I got up and I was able to walk back up to the house. And then my grandma and my dad are fighting over the water hose, not realizing they're fighting over the water hose. And grandma's trying to get the water to wash the dirt off me, and my dad's trying to put the fire out. I just crawled over to the water spigot and undid the hose myself. I put my body under the water for a minute and washed it off. And then we hooked it back up and my dad was able to put the fire out. And by that point, we were getting me up off the ground and walking me to the front. That's when the fire crew and everyone came around.”

Check back next week for Faith Through the Flames, Part Two: Bailey looks up and sees a familiar face, cousin Dustin Hancock, arriving on the scene as part of the rescue team from Ochopee Fire Control. Within minutes, Bailey is med-flighted to the hospital—his first flight of any kind. “I didn’t know helicopters were so fast,” Bailey said. Stephanie goes into labor while one floor away, Bailey faints after pushing himself too hard in rehab. But thanks to a good friend and understanding hospital staff at Tampa General, Bailey is able to watch Stephanie give birth to Isaiah with Manny by his side. While things are on the upswing, Bailey still has a long way to go in his recovery. Bailey, Stephanie, and their grandmother share their stories of faith.

Want to help? A GoFundMe fundraiser named Support for the Richards Family has been set up by Amie Richards for Stephanie Richards. “Everyone reaching out and continuing their prayers, I feel like is what is really helping,” Stephanie said.