Tuolumne Marine’s wife killed in blast

A Tuolumne family is mourning the loss of a daughter-in-law killed in a propane blast Friday night near the U.S. Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Mono County.

The explosion happened around 9 p.m. Friday at the training center’s housing unit in Coleville, northwest of Bridgeport in the Toiyabe National Forest.

Tuolumne native Gunnery Sgt. Greg Hardin’s wife, Lori Hardin, 31, was killed in the explosion, according to military reports.

Hardin and their two young sons were not hurt in the explosion.

Hardin’s father, Don Hardin, of Tuolumne, said the couple had been married 10 years.

According to Lori Hardin’s Facebook page, she was an online professor for Ashford University and earned her master’s degree in education and instructional technology at Drury University in Missouri.

A native of Hudson, Iowa, she double-majored at the University of Northern Iowa in early childhood education and elementary education, her Facebook page said.

Don Hardin said he’d spoken to his son and “he’s holding up good but still that might be shock.”

He and his other son, Anthony, talked about how they plan to be there for their bereaved family.

Greg Hardin attended Summerville Elementary School and is a public works planner in the military, with two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan under his belt.

Two other blast victims, a Navy corpsman and his wife, were flown to hospitals with serious injuries including third-degree burns.

The corpsman was treated at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno and was released Saturday. His wife remained in critical condition at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, though her condition was improving, Marine spokesman Capt. Nicholas Mannweiler said.

The couple has asked that their names not be released, Mannweiler said.

The explosion damaged seven duplexes and 38 families were evacuated. Most units were closed because their utilities were shut off for safety reasons, he said.

By Sunday night, 20 families returned home and 18 remained displaced, he said. The explosion destroyed one house in the center of the blast but left 11 uninhabitable, Mannweiler said.

The blast had to do with the housing area’s propane distribution system, and was not associated with activities at the Marine base, about 30 miles away, Mannweiler said.

Officials conducted safety inspections Saturday night and began testing the propane distribution system house-by-house for leaks or any other signs of trouble and to ensure gas-powered appliances were re-lit and functioning properly, military reports said.

Families in homes found to have minimal damage began moving back in Sunday, and other families will be moved back in one by one throughout the week, Mannweiler said.

“We have to inspect everything to make sure we’re not jeopardizing our families,” he said.
Some people suffered superficial cuts and bruises in the explosion, which is being investigated with help from the Cal Fire.

At 9,000 feet high atop the Sierra Nevada mountains near the Nevada border, the Mountain Warfare Training Center is one of the Marines’ most remote posts, used for training for cold and mountainous areas.
It has about 160 marines and 300 civilian employees.