An End-of-Summer Outing Exploded Into Fiery Tragedy

Steve and Cheryl Dunham set out to reward themselves after a difficult summer. In addition to three children of their own, the Laguna Hills couple had cared for the four children of their closest friends during the summer while the husband fought cancer.

So the Dunhams planned a final family outing of the season: a trip to Sea World in San Diego with two of their children. The outing was particularly special for 5-year-old Andrew Dunham, who in seven days would start kindergarten.

On Tuesday evening, though, while on their way home from San Diego, the Dunhams were struck with tragedy of their own. Stopped in rush-hour traffic on Interstate 5 just north of La Jolla, their van was struck from behind by a car going about 55 m.p.h.

The van’s fuel tank exploded, engulfing the family in flames. The Dunhams and their 3-year-old daughter, Amanda, escaped from the burning vehicle. But Andrew was trapped in the inferno and burned to death.

The other three members of the family suffered second- and third-degree burns over 25% to 30% of their bodies--mostly on their faces, arms and legs--and were taken to UC San Diego Medical Center. Steve and Amanda were in critical condition in the hospital’s burn unit Wednesday, while Cheryl was in fair condition in the intensive care unit, according to Sheri Smith, a hospital spokeswoman.

“Of the three of them, he is definitely the worst (off),” Smith said of Steve Dunham. “The doctors are concerned he may not make it, but you never know about these things.”

According to one account, Dunham passed his daughter Amanda out a window of the burning van while screaming to onlookers that another child was trapped inside.

The driver of vehicle that collided with the Dunhams’ van, Ali Awad of Hawthorne, had had his driver’s license suspended since March for not having insurance, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Awad and his four passengers were injured in the accident, Awad apparently the most seriously. He was listed in good condition Wednesday at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. Police and hospital officials declined to release information about the condition of the other four occupants of Awad’s car, one of them Awad’s 8-year-old nephew.

Officer Lloyd Needham, a California Highway Patrol spokesman in San Diego, said Awad told investigators he hadn’t noticed that the Dunhams’ van was stopped when his vehicle plowed into it.

But Awad told a reporter Wednesday from his hospital bed that he was traveling in the freeway’s left lane when the van abruptly cut in front of him. “The yellow van pulled in front of me without signaling, no brake lights, no nothing,” he said.

In the Dunhams’ tight-knit Laguna Hills neighborhood, residents were grieving.

“They seemed like an ideal family, which is rare these days,” said Bob Radzavage, who lives next to the Dunhams.

“The kids in the neighborhood are devastated by this,” said Jackie Metcalf, who lives across the street. “We’re all kind of reeling.”

Several of the Dunhams’ neighbors characterized the family as extraordinarily close. In addition to the two children involved in Tuesday’s accident, the Dunhams have a 6-month-old son, Daniel, who was with his mother’s parents in Anaheim at the time of the accident.

Kay Coppola, who lives across the street from the Dunhams, remembered Andrew as “just a typical little 5-year-old” with light blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. “He loved ball, soccer and baseball. He would sometimes throw a grapefruit from one of the trees around as a baseball.”

“He always wanted to do something--kind of a rascal at times,” Bob Radzavage added. “You remember those kinds of things.”

Between the neighbors and “an incredible support network” the family has through its Irvine church, Metcalf said, the Dunhams’ relatives will be provided meals, transportation and plenty of support.

“We’ll get through this,” Metcalf said. “We’re a very close neighborhood.”