Couple’s Home Explodes While They’re Inside

Donald and Darlene Rynkowski’s house exploded with them inside. Listen to the 80-year-old couple’s harrowing story of survival—and trusting God in the midst of devastation.  

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Transcript

Darlene Rynkowski:  
[00:00:00] I hear the technician in the basement yelling up, hey, Don, turn up the thermostat. So, my husband turns up the thermostat and starts down the basement. He gets halfway down – the house blows up.  

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:00:16] Darlene Rynkowski’s husband, Don, was just steps away from the blast.  

Darlene Rynkowski:
[00:00:21] And then, I hear this voice in the dark saying help me! Help me! Twice. I know that’s my husband. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:00:30] The Rynkowski story is harrowing and heartbreaking, but it’s also full of hope. That’s because they know the author of their story and how much He loves them. Listen in as they retell the events of their home exploding, and how God was with them before, during, and after the explosion. This is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland. What the Rynkowskis experienced was nothing short of a nightmare. But as you’ll hear, they have a peace about the situation that’s hard to put into words. There’s a reason for that, says Billy Graham.  

Billy Graham: 
[00:01:10] While the world is a dangerous place, yet there is a unique sphere wherein the Christian is said to live that is unavailable to those outside of Jesus Christ. First, it is a place of safety. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:01:25] If you want to know more about that safety Billy Graham was speaking about, that is the assurance that comes with a life given to Jesus Christ. Go to our website, FindPeacewithGod.net, to see how you can ask Jesus Christ to come into your life right now. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. And the quickest way to get there is the link in our show notes. 

Audio and Music Tag:
[00:01:49]

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:01:55] We’re Donald and Darlene Rynkowski. We’re 80 years old, and we’ve been married for 60 years. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:00] Don and Darlene both grew up in Detroit. They met at a party in 1964. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:02:07] I met her in, uh, November. Asked her to marry me in May, and we married in August … one of those love at first sight kind of things. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:15] They bought a house and started a family. With three children at home, they knew love and happiness and chaos, but they didn’t know God. In fact, Darlene was dabbling in the occult. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:02:28] I got into all kinds of stuff like Ouija boards and thinking about – I didn’t know it was satanic stuff. But you know, what kids are playing with and, uh, came to realize that if there is a power as great as this satanic stuff I was seeing, then there certainly has to be another power. I guess I believed in God as a pretty good guy somewhere out there. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:52] Then, when Darlene and Don were in their mid-twenties, Darlene’s sister Dawn became a Christian. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:02:59] And she came to me and said she got saved at some gala. And she started talking about God and Jesus. And I thought, who is she? I didn’t want anything to do with her. I didn’t want to hear about all of her Jesus talk. Neither one of us did. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:16] Darlene played baseball at the time. And she broke her finger. The doctor talked about putting in a screw to fix it. In the meantime, Darlene was in a lot of pain.

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:03:27] And then, my sister called me. And she’s talking about God on the phone again. I said, you know what? I don’t want to hear any more God talk. I’m really done with your God talk. And that’s all you talk about. And I’m tired of it. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:39] Darlene’s sister did not give up. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:03:42] And then, my sister said, well, if you’d just trust. And I said, if your God is so good and so great, then why doesn’t He fix my finger so it stops hurting? And I got off the phone. And I walked into the living room, and my finger stopped hurting. It was broke, but it stopped hurting. Someone heard me. And I walked into my bedroom and got on my knees. And I said, Lord, I really don’t know who you are. I love ya. And I’m sorry. And anything I can do from here on in, you let me know because I’ll do it. That is my salvation story. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:04:26] Darlene grew up in a Lutheran family and still had the little white King James Bible from her confirmation. Realizing that she knew next to nothing about Jesus, she started reading the gospels during the weekdays while no one else was home. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:04:44]  Then, my husband saw me. And he says, you’re reading your Bible. He pointed his finger at me and said, you going to turn out like your sister? Is that who you’re going to be? You going to be some Jesus freak? Is that who you are now? He said don’t you know that that Bible is just ignorant? It was written for ignorant shepherds, and it's all fairy tales. And I said to him, oh, no. No, it’s not. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:05:08] I was raised Catholic and never had a Bible in my life. We had none in the house. In fact, my mother said that when she was young they weren’t supposed to even read it. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:17] Don gave up on Catholicism when he married Darlene. While Darlene was beginning to read the Bible, Don was reading up on the idea of a new world order. Then, a friend gave him a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth, a best-selling book that made a lot of waves in the 1970s by connecting events like the Cold War to biblical end times prophecies. The book sparked Don’s curiosity enough to cause him to pick up a Bible. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:05:47] I realized that I was a sinner and-and I had to answer to God. And that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for me. And I had to accept him. Believe in your heart; confess with your mouth the Lord, Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:06:00] It took the Rynkowskis some time to put words to their experience, but they realized they had been born again. That is, they have been changed by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord. And what was happening is what is stated in the Bible’s New Testament book of II Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. The couple began hosting Bible studies at their home and sharing the gospel with neighbors. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:06:36] It was like a revival on our street. We had some teenagers that we got close to, and their parents left them. They divorced, and they left these teenagers in their house. Hard to believe. I went over there with a Bible in my pocket. I was going to witness to them. They were having a party. And I wind up inviting the two older boys over to our house, and they got saved. And then, the next day, they brought their little brother to us … and they said, tell him what you told us. It was just a very unusual time. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:07:05] This all happened before they even found a church to attend. Darlene and Don moved to South Carolina for Don to attend Bible college. Eight years later, they headed back to Michigan, where they bought a grand old house in the country near Grand Rapids. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:07:22] It was a solid, well-built 1860 home that people admired. They would slow down and look at the house. And people would ask are you the big white house that looks like you’re in a park? Like 60 ft maple trees all surrounding it. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:07:35] Back then, Don worked as an engineer. Darlene worked in law enforcement where she helped develop the hostage negotiation protocols for the Michigan State Police. She also taught firearms and martial arts. In short, she is a lady you don’t want to mess with. Conditioned, well-honed by tough circumstances, but nothing had prepared her for what was going to happen the morning of October 21st, 2025. Darlene was preparing a chicken to cook in a crockpot. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:08:08] I put the chicken in there and go, for crying out loud, what’s wrong with this chicken? It smells funny. I thought it was spoiled chicken. Well, come to find out, it wasn’t. It was propane.

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:08:16] She called the propane company, and Don turned off the propane tank and the furnaces. The technician who arrived later told them he identified a leak in a line and disconnected it. They assumed they would need to spend the cold Michigan night at a hotel. But according to them, the technician said they could stay put at home. All they had to do was light the furnace. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:08:41] To me, that didn’t sound like that would be right. And I said, you’re kidding. No, no, I’m going to come in and light it. So, he comes in the house. And Don comes in with him. I said to him are you sure that what you’re doing is okay? And he said, which we’ll reverberate in our brains forever until the day we take our last breath, 100%. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:09:03] Darlene took their bulldog with her and went to sit in the great room to watch TV. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:09:08] And I hear the technician in the basement yelling up, hey, Don, turn up the thermostat. So, my husband turns up the thermostat and starts down the basement. He gets halfway down – and the house blows up. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:09:25] I saw a fireball at the bottom of the stairs. It looked like pictures of the sun that they have out in outer space … twinkling kind of … that is exactly what that ball looked like coming up at me, and blew by me, and did all the damage to my hands. My hands were burned. My legs were burned; my back was burned. Of course, my face. My hair was gone. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:09:45] And then, I hear this voice in the dark saying, help me! Help me! Twice. I know that’s my husband. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:09:54] Darlene stood, somehow, unscathed in the middle of their great room. She remembers seeing a dark olive-green color all around and says it looked like a huge bubble. As she moved through the house towards Don, she noticed the refrigerator was upside down. The windows were blown out, and the bathroom was gone. She looked down the stairwell to the basement and saw Don with his arms outstretched. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:10:22] And I said, he’s on fire. He’s literally on fire. And I said to him, you’re on fire. He goes, yeah, I know. So, I come down, and I take my bare hands and knock the fire out of his vest, his jacket. He’s all black. His teeth are black; his hair is gone. And I at least got the fire out. And that’s what I was thinking. At least I got the fire out. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:10:51] With the fire out, the couple started up the stairs together. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:10:57] He’s leaning on me, and I’m leaning on him. We get up to the top of the steps, and he cautions me. Be careful. Look at that! There’s glass and wood shards and metal everywhere. Tell me, how did I get through that? How did I get through that? I looked down for the first time and said, I walked through that? How did I do that? Was it that bubble? 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:20] You’ll recall that the technician was also in the basement. Somehow, he got out of the house too. Local news reports said he was hospitalized but didn’t elaborate on his injuries. That night, as Darlene and Don stood outside gazing at what was left of their house, something completely unexpected occurred. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:11:40] A second explosion would have been where I was sitting after the first explosion because that was the other propane furnace. And it was very large. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:50]  A second explosion rocked the house. And then, a third. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:11:56] He was looking at the house. And I was looking at him. I had his shoulders and his head cradled in my arms. So, I’m not looking at the house. I’m looking at him. He sees the fire. It goes whish, the first floor. Whish, the second floor. And it goes up into the big trees. And the trees are all crumbling. And … and he says to me, I think we lost everything. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:12:23] Firefighters couldn’t save the house. But Don and Darlene soon came to grasp there was a bigger worry at hand than the house. With burns covering about 40% of his body, Don’s odds of survival were bleak. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:12:38] They gave me, uh, a 20% chance of living. I can live with that. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:12:43] The couple held fast to their faith in Christ. Don would spend a month in the hospital but miraculously pulled through. They praised God for saving his life and for protecting Darlene from any injury. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:12:57] Now, I can tell you where the miracle is. People don’t live through this. They don’t. Everyone’s told us that. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:13:04] Even their bulldog is alive and well. Nine months later, the Rynkowskis carry opposing emotions about all that transpired. Joy that they’re alive, and grief over what is lost. They’re both continuing to recover emotionally and physically. 

Darlene Rynkowski:
[00:13:23] And this poor guy, he’s got – what does he have? He’s got bad hands that are still lingering. So, yeah. His hands are still bad. 

Don Rynkowski: 
[00:13:30] They still hurt basically 24/7. My legs have healed. My back is healed. My hair is growing back. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:13:38] Don has trouble picking up things and holding on to stuff. For Darlene, it’s the psychological wounds. Sudden loud crashing sounds take Darlene back to that awful day in October. Any noise resembling an explosion causes her to scream involuntarily. The two of them can laugh over the combination of Don’s unsteady hands and Darlene’s screams, but the hurt is real. And it’s there every day. 

Darlene Rynkowski:
[00:14:06] This is what God gave me. I mean, when you go through something like that, everybody reads Job. Right? No, not one time did I ever think God did anything but save us. Because some people will say, what did you do wrong? Why did God punish you? No, He did not punish us. He kept us alive. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:14:27] Don and Darlene seek refuge in the Psalms along with the book of Job, particularly the second half of chapter 19. For this battle-tested 80-year-old couple, the passage is more than just words on a page. It’s a very real promise that keeps them going. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:14:46] For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroying this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. 

Music tag:
[00:15:00]

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:15:10] We have had the privilege today of meeting Don and Darlene Rynkowski who lost their home of four decades to a propane explosion last fall. Through the trauma of Don’s burns and the loss of their house, the couple has relied upon Jesus. And you can too. Go to FindPeacewithGod.net and click Begin a Relationship with Jesus. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. You can also find it in our show notes. Stick around. Coming up, we have a final word from Darlene and Don. 

Audio tag:
[00:15:45] 

Billy Graham: 
[00:15:54] While the world is a dangerous place, yet there is a unique sphere wherein the Christian is said to live that is unavailable to those outside of Jesus Christ. First, it is a place of safety. 

Announcer:
[00:16:09] Billy Graham … 

Billy Graham: 
[00:16:10] Nothing can happen to us by accident. Even the tragedies, bereavements and sufferings of life are allowed by God for his own unique purpose. In Christ is a place of perfect security. Thus, to you Christians, there should be a calmness of mind, a quietness of heart, and a poise of spirit which nothing in the outside world nor the activities of Satan, nor the yearnings of the flesh can disturb. What a glorious joy and satisfaction it is to live in Christ at whatever our daily experience may be. Many of you listening to my voice do not know Christ. You’ve never been born again. You’ve never received him as your Savior. There has never been a real, vital experience with Christ. You can start today. Right now, in the flash of a moment, you can say yes to Christ. And you can enter into all of the joy, thrill, excitement, and ecstasy that there is in Jesus Christ. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:17:11] Just as Billy Graham said, giving your life to Jesus Christ can bring you the joy and peace that nothing else will. If you haven’t given your life to Jesus Christ, we can walk you through how to do that. Head to our website, FindPeacewithGod.net. There, you can learn what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. If you’ve called upon Jesus as your Lord, you can explore ways to grow deeper in your faith as you walk with him. You’ll find all of this at FindPeacewithGod.net. As always, you can find a link to the page in our show notes. Don and Darlene Rynkowski are not preachers, but throughout the course of our conversation with them, they certainly preached the gospel. And we’re going to give them one more chance to share the message of hope and new life they work hard to share with everybody at every opportunity. 

Darlene Rynkowski: 
[00:18:07] All you people out there, you go every day. Eat. Go to the store. Go to a ball game. You’re going to die. And when you die, that’s when you’ve got to figure out, where am I going to go? The Lord has prepared a universe for us over and over again. All these – and the stars. We always laugh. God created the heavens and the earth. And stars also. Get on the web telescope and look at all the little stars that God made. Some of them are galaxies. Wow, what a magnificent, fantastic God that we have. And one other thing that I have to say, as far as our Savior goes, I finally came to this conclusion that it is personal between me and Him. It is personal. He knows me, and I know him. And He uses me however he wants. Sometimes mysteriously like this … what went on with the explosion. You need to talk to Him. That’s who you need to talk to. His name happens to be Jesus Christ. He is also called the Word; he is also the Creator. Read the book of John if you want to find out who created the actual earth. He did. And, uh, I guess that’s all I have to say. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:19:25] And all I have to say to that is, amen. And a big thank you to Don and Darlene Rynkowski for joining us on this episode of GPS, and for their inspirational faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you find yourself inspired by their story, we have many more stories of faith in Jesus Christ. The episodes are available anywhere you find podcasts and on YouTube. Subscribe to us, and you’ll get a new GPS every two weeks delivered right into the middle of life every other Wednesday. I’m Jim Kirkland. And this is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Always good news. 

Music tag:
[00:20:08] 

End of transcript