By Timia Cobb
syracuse.com
LINCOLN, N.Y. — Susan and Carl Pynn had lived in their Madison County home for over 40 years.
They spent their lives committed to helping others, their family and friends said. Before retiring, Susan worked as an emergency medical technician. Carl was a firefighter for the Lincoln Fire Department for 50 years.
The firefighters and others they called friends and spent years working with on Wednesday had to pull them out from the rubble of their home after a propane explosion leveled the two-story home.
“I imagined it must be like what people go through when like a tornado had hit their home, that’s essentially what it felt like,” said their son, Kyle Pynn , 54, of Kansas City.
Susan, 74, and Carl, 78, were found under the wreckage of the home. Susan was pronounced dead at the scene. Carl was airlifted to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse and was in critical condition Thursday.
The explosion was reported at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday at their home at 4621 Burleson Road in the town of Lincoln . There’s nothing left but a pile of debris.
Kyle learned about the explosion when a cousin called on Wednesday night.
The cousin usually called him to argue about the Buffalo Bills beating the Kansas City Chiefs , but this time he told him his childhood home had exploded. Kyle later learned his parents had been inside.
Susan and Carl were high school sweethearts, their son said Friday as he drove to see his father in the hospital
“I’m just trying to get my head wrapped around the pain that my father will have to deal with when he starts to wake up and realize what’s going on,” he said.
His parents shared a love for community service, which made them quite known in Madison County, he said.
“‘They’re the nicest people,’ You know, that’s always the comment,” he said.
His father was a past fire investigator for Madison County and worked with the Lincoln Fire Department for years. His mother was an EMT with the Greater Lenox Ambulance Corps.
Even after retirement, Kyle said they both continued to find ways to spend time giving back to their community. His father drove a school bus for Oneida City School District, while his mother was a home health care provider.
Kyle was able to catch an early morning flight Thursday and immediately went to see his father at Upstate. When he was finally able to stop by his parent’s home, he couldn’t understand what he was looking at.
“How is this even possible,” he said. “Literally everything is just blown off in every direction. “It’s honestly, to me, incomprehensible.”
Lincon Fire Chief Dan Lozipone said several members of the department recognized the home as soon as they arrived on Wednesday.
Seeing the couple’s vehicle in the driveway told them they were home, he said.
“Our main concern was locating both of them,” he said.
The road to the home was impassible and scattered with rubble, he said. The two-story, four-bedroom home was condensed to a 6-foot pile of wreckage, he said.
“It was just absolute total destruction,” he said.
The rescuers heard moaning coming from the debris and worked to pull the couple out, he said. It wasn’t easy to get the couple out because they were trapped in the debris, he said. They had to cut through roof and tunnel through the remains for the home, the chief said.
“We’ve had meth lab explosions, little explosions here and there,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of things in our careers, and that is the most violent explosion we’ve ever seen.”
A propane leak caused the explosion, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood. It appeared the couple had no warning before the explosion leveled their home, he said. The leak appeared to be accidental, he said.
Kyle said he moved into the home when he was 12 years old. He said he will remember his mother for being kind and always having a smile. Thinking about his father, he remembers the time they made toy trains together in his workshop inside the home.
“They were the loves of each other’s lives,” he said. “They’ve been virtually inseparable for 56 years.”
Staff writer Timia Cobb covers breaking news. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at tcobb@syracuse.com.
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