Fatal blast rocks town of Menno

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Robert Simonsen, a Menno volunteer firefighter, looks over the debris left by a house explosion Monday night in Menno. The explosion killed the women who lived in the house and caused minor injuries to two neighbors. (Chris Huber/Republic Photo)

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Gerald Schaeffer was sitting by his window, watching TV news Monday night when he heard the sound of glass breaking.

“The window came in on me,” Schaeffer said. “I turned around and the dark just turned orange and then yellow from the flames.”

The flames came from the adjacent home of Gail Guthmiller, a 56-year-old Menno resident who was thrown from her house and killed when it exploded at approximately 10:30 p.m.

Authorities say a natural gas leak may have caused the blast that scattered debris across the area, damaging three other homes and injuring Schaeffer and David Marquardt of Rochester, Minn., who was in another nearby house.

Schaeffer had several stitches in both of his legs to close wounds.

Marquardt, who was transported by helicopter to McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, suffered a compound fracture to one arm and some bruising after being struck with debris. He was staying in the home connected to the Aisenbrey-Kostel Funeral Home, located north of Guthmiller’s home.

No condition report on Marquardt was available Tuesday evening.

The aftermath of the explosion was evident Tuesday morning. What was once a house at 115 S. Park St. was nothing more than a pile of debris. The only thing left of the Schaeffers’ garage, and the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox that was housed within, was a pile of shingles and wood. The car was flattened under the garage roof, he said.

Schaeffer said the explosion blew out every window on the north side of his home, which faced Guthmiller’s home. At the funeral home, plywood covered holes left in the roof from flying concrete that may mark the end of the building.

“It’s got a lot of structural damage,” said Roger Simonsen, Hutchinson County coroner. “I don’t know if it’s going to be rebuilt.”

Simonsen said the building was “about all trashed.”

But the sense of loss was all related to Guthmiller Tuesday as neighbors and friends looked upon the crash site with shocked faces and moist eyes.

“You couldn’t find a nicer gal. It hurts,” said Clarence Simonsen, a 95-year-old Menno resident who said he’s worked for nearly 60 years at the funeral home. “A small town like this is just one big family. What happens to one of us hurts us all.”

Schaeffer’s wife, Donna, said the explosion lifted up a camper located across the street from the explosion and sent a two-by-four through the vehicle.

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered Guthmiller, who moved to the neighborhood approximately three years ago to take care of her elderly parents.

Guthmiller had two jobs, working part-time at the Menno Post Office and also at Heritage Pharmacy. Locals said she was a friendly person who always greeted people with a smile. A postal co-worker was too choked up to talk about her Tuesday morning.

“It’s a tragedy,” Donna Schaeffer said while sitting in her car Tuesday morning. “It’s as simple as that.”

Kathleen Pfeifel arrived on the scene of the explosion Tuesday morning to see the result of the explosion that took the life of her “true friend” who would have turned 57 on Sept. 1.

“I cried and prayed all night,” she said. “I don’t think anybody in this whole town didn’t like her. She was just a doll.

“She was just loved by everybody.”

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