‘I’ve had 30 ops after surviving gas blast at 10 – then I was crowned beauty queen’

DAILY STAR

Danette Burzlaff-Haag remembers everything from when her house was destroyed with 27 people inside.

Her family were holding an event for local children in their Iowa home when a faulty valve in the furnace caused a gas leak. When Haag’s mother turned on the hot water, it ignited the fumes, and the house went up in flames.

A ball of fire emerged from the basement stairs, engulfing 10-year-old Danette and the house, and everything inside was destroyed.
Danette suffered third-degree burns to nearly 70% of her body, and she and her dad endured life-threatening injuries, but miraculously everyone survived.
“I had an emergency tracheotomy and was attached to a ventilator to keep me alive.

“I was in the burn centre for months and was in and out of the hospital for reconstructive surgeries until I was 20.

“I have had more surgeries than I can count (somewhere around 30), most of which were skin grafts, creating more wounds and adding to the extent of my forever scars,” Danette, who now lives in Windsor, Colorado remembers.

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