WXYZ chief meteorologist Dave Rexroth and his wife, Debbie, talk on the air about the summer night that shook their lives.
In two Thursday night newscast segments labeled "From Darkness Into Light," the couple talks with anchor Carolyn Clifford about a July 4 backyard fireworks mishap that cost the broadcaster his left eye. (The first segment is below.)
Dave Rexroth: "I remember thinking I've just ruined everything for everybody."
They were visiting her parents in Iowa City with their three son, a yearly Iowa tradition during that holiday week. While Rexroth, 38, lit fireworks, something went terribly wrong.
"I found myself on the ground," he recalls. "I didn’t really have pain, I just knew there had been something so bad or so traumatic, I ended up on the ground."
A post at the station's site picks up the story:
Deb heard someone yelling to call an ambulance but she had no idea what happened.
“I’m laying in the grass and I open this eye and everything was still black,” Dave said. “So I put my hands to my face and could feel blood running down both arms.”
Deb’s mind was racing. “Is he conscious? Is he breathing? What’s the injury? I had no idea because he was so far away.”
"I remember thinking I've just ruined everything for everybody," Dave says.
