The home of veteran author Cecil (Cec) Murphey burned to the ground Tuesday, and his son-in-law, Alan Hege, was killed in the fire. According to Murphey's literary agent, Deidre Knight, and his friend Jan Coates, the cause of the fire that destroyed Murphey's Tucker, Ga., home has not been determined.

The author and co-author of approximately 110 books, Murphey co-wrote the New York Times' best-seller 90 Minutes in Heaven (Revell) with Don Piper and wrote Devotions for Warriors (Spire Books), The God Who Pursues: Encountering a Relentless God (Bethany House) and Committed But Flawed (AMG Publishers).

Murphey's neighbors, Stan and Carol Cottrell, are sharing their home with Murphey and his wife, Shirley, Knight and Coates said. Funeral arrangements for Hege have not been determined.

Elsewhere, prolific author and Christianity Today writer Philip Yancey is recovering after being injured in a car accident Feb. 25.

On his Web site www.philipyancey.com, Yancey, who wrote The Jesus I Never Knew and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? (both by Zondervan), said that he was driving alone on a remote highway after a busy weekend speaking in New Mexico when his Ford Explorer rolled over sideways, at least three times.

“Within five minutes a couple of cars stopped and their occupants, Mormons on the way to church, called for help,” said Yancey, noting that he had a lot of minor cuts and bruises on his face and limbs, but except for a persistent nosebleed, nothing serious.”

But after being taken to a hospital in Alamosa, Colo., a doctor discovered that Yancey had broken the C-3 vertebra on his back, although the break did not occur in his spinal cord column. An MRI revealed that a bone fragment did not penetrate an artery.

Yancey was fitted with a rigid neck brace that will keep his head from moving for the next 10 weeks or so. If the vertebra heals on its own, he won't need surgery down the road.

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