93-year-old couple from New Hampshire dies after tabletop fire pit explodes

DOVER, N.H. - A Dover, New Hampshire, woman is putting out a warning after her parents died when a tabletop fire pit suddenly exploded.

It's a devastating loss to her family, losing their parents in a matter of seconds in a freak accident that they're still trying to understand.

Fire pit explodes

Dee McEneaney was sitting on her front porch with Herm and Thelma Stolzenburg for a Father's Day family gathering when the unthinkable happened to the small device they were all seated around.

"All of a sudden, these flames shot out and like a blow torch, is all I describe it as. That totally took over both my parents' bodies," McEneaney tells WBZ-TV.

Her mother fell to the floor, her father was also engulfed in flames, and Dee McEneaney says she was in shock, not knowing who to help first.

"There was no time to react in any other way than I did. But to just get up and start screaming and try to help. I was trying to bat the flames on my mother with my hands, and my Dad too, and I look at her and have to go to my Dad."

Her 93-year-old parents were married for 71 years. They passed away one week after the accident from third-degree burn injuries. Her father died three days after her mother.

People online had similar experiences with tabletop firepits

Dee is devastated by the loss and wrote about it on social media to warn others in a post that's gone viral.

"There have been many, many accidents. Since I posted that, so many people, total strangers from all over the world, are telling me their stories of similar incidents that have happened to them," Dee said.

They have been empty days since losing the parents she saw every day.  She says the device that took their lives came without any safety instructions.

"It's not safe, we weren't careless. We enjoyed it, and then the end came."  Dee McEneaney says telling their story is now her therapy.  "If that's the best that can come out of this, my parents won't have died in vain."

The New Hampshire State Fire Marshal's office says it is investigating.