If it weren't for a few bandages, a bit of skin discoloration and a couple of scratches on his face, no one would suspect anything unusual had happened to Dewain Zeglin.

But only two weeks ago, Zeglin, 18, of Casper, turned his back just in time to miss a propane tank exploding in his face.

Zeglin was on his knees, lighting a propane heater inside the used motor home he'd just purchased, when the it blew up. Little did he know when he began to light it, a pressure line had come apart and was leaking propane.

"It was getting cold, so I said 'This is the perfect time to test it [the heater],' and, well, it didn't work," Zeglin joked.

Although his face was mostly unharmed, Zeglin received second-degree burns on both of his hands. Immediately, his skin boiled over and began peeling off in sheets.

"It felt like a thousand needles on every point you can imagine," Zeglin said.

Thanks to a heavy industrial jacket he put on just before going out to the tank, Zeglin's hands were the only part of his body seriously injured when the tank exploded. His injuries stop in straight lines across his wrists where the coat covered his arms.

"The explosion came from behind me, because I turned my back, so the coat really saved my whole back from being burned," he said.

The motor home was not so lucky. Only a week in Zeglin's care and still parked in his fiance's driveway, the motor home was "burned to a crisp," he said. The bathroom door, which was knocked off its hinges during the explosion, saved Zeglin's fiance, Kari Pederson, 19, who was also in the motor home. Both people were thrown outside, and Pederson landed on Zeglin, saving her from any injury.

"That's why I've got a big ol' bruise up here on my thigh, was because she landed on me," Zeglin smirked.

His injuries are healing incredibly fast, he said, and doctors at the burn center in Greely, Colo., have released him to go back to work on Monday.

"All things considered, it turned out pretty well," he said. "Right now, it just feels sort of tender, like sunburn."

He also lost most of the feeling in his left thumb, but it still moves.

"I feel very lucky. So many things that happened that I don't normally do made this kind of a miracle," he said.

Now, Zeglin hopes others will learn from his experience.

"I would definitely encourage people to get their gas lines checked," he said. "I don't want someone else to go through what I just did."

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0616 or megan.lee@trib.com. Read her DogBlog at tribtown.trib.com/MeganLee/blog.