Marines, corpsmen ‘ran toward’ Twentynine Palms home rocked by explosion

When a house exploded in Twentynine Palms, California, on Aug. 21, off-duty Navy corpsmen left dinner to rush to the scene, teaming up with local Marines to rescue residents. The corpsmen, assigned to Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Twentynine Palms, gathered at Kitchen in the Desert that night to honor Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Hareramdas Garcia, who was leaving the command. Around 8:30 p.m., an explosion rang out across the neighborhood. Hospitalman Mykrussel Dominguez Gonzales, an emergency department corpsman at Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, recalled the moment. “We heard a loud explosion and immediately saw white smoke rising from the direction of the sound,” Gonzales said in a recent release . “Once we saw the smoke, we quickly ran toward it.” They found a house engulfed in flames and partially collapsed. The cause of the explosion remains unknown. Gonzales spotted someone waving for help inside the house. He saw one injured man trying to pull another from the structure. Gonzales and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Aiden Keith entered the building to rescue the injured men. “Recognizing the immediate danger, we immediately entered the house to provide assistance,” Gonzales recounted. “The roof had already partially collapsed and the flames were spreading.” Surrounded by debris and fire, Gonzales lifted the trapped man’s upper body while Keith, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kareem Underwood and Marine Cpl. Zachary Voorhees, both assigned to 7th Marine Regimen…