Neighbors describe deadly blast that killed Nicholasville infant

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - A Jessamine County community is grieving the loss of four-month-old Brylee Mae Gill, who died when a car she was in blew up on Wednesday morning.

Witnesses told police a man was working on the vehicle when it exploded.

Some of the details are difficult to hear.

“I come downstairs, I open the door, and it’s the guy who lives right here,” said Alphonzo Lyvers, a neighbor. “He’s like, ‘my baby’s dying, my baby’s dying,’ but his whole skin is like all like melted off. He’s got his skin in his hands.”

Lyvers said the man working on the car that exploded was the same man who knocked on his door.

“As soon as I step out, it’s all just flames, glass is breaking, everyone is screaming, so I go back home to put my clothes on, I come back outside, and he’s gone,” said Lyvers.

Police say he ran off before being found at a local hospital.

In the home next door, neighbors struggled to breathe as first responders made their way to the scene. The somber news traveled through word of mouth.

“Next thing you know, the firefighters and the police are all here, and [...] I was talking with my mom, and I couldn’t breathe,” said Alexis Ritchie, a neighbor. “There was so much smoke, and I heard them overtalking that there was a baby in the car, and I was like, ‘there’s a baby in the car, what do you mean?’”

Among the damage outside of the home sits a small memorial for Brylee, including pink heart-shaped balloons and a few stuffed animals.

A GoFundMe page has been started by Brylee’s family.

The cause of the blast is still under investigation.

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