Explosion demolishes Washington County home
State police trying to determine cause of the blast
An explosion that could be heard miles away flattened a home Wednesday afternoon in Washington County, injuring at least four people, including three firefighters, damaging other houses and scattering debris.
Multiple fire crews responded about 3: 50 p. m. to the 100 block of Park Lane in North Franklin as pieces of insulation and dust particles still floated in the air. No recognizable pieces of the home were visible, save for parts of the foundation.
The blast shattered windows and staved in doors on nearby homes and tossed broken pieces of roof tiles hundreds of feet. Jeff Yates, the county’s public safety director, said he felt the explosion in his office inside a block building about a mile away in the city of Washington.
State police investigators were exploring the possibility that natural gas caused the blast. Gas company crews had been working in the area, residents said.
Ellsworth Denormandie, 72, who lives a few hundred feet from the destroyed house, said he was watching television when he heard what sounded like a “bomb.” His back screen door was knocked off, he said, as were several pictures on a wall in his home.
“I ran out on my deck, and I saw that house just demolished,” Mr. Denormandie said. “Nothing. Nothing left at all.”
Mr. Yates said the homeowner, who was not identified, had just returned to her residence Wednesday afternoon when she smelled gas and immediately called the fire department.
Two firefighters got to the home in private vehicles before the rest of the department arrived and shut off the gas, he said.
About a minute later, the firefighters and the homeowner were standing outside when the house exploded. All three were taken to a hospital; their conditions were not released.
A third firefighter, overcome by heat exhaustion, also was treated at a hospital, Mr. Yates said. All of the injured firefighters were from the North Franklin department, he said.
Another person may have been injured by flying glass, according to Mr. Yates.
Neighbors said the injured woman and two children lived in the house that was destroyed.
Columbia Gas crews responded to the scene and temporarily shut off service to about 60 homes.
Nathan Oest, 40, another neighbor, said he smelled gas after the blast, so he grabbed his 5- year- old daughter and ran down the street, barefoot and shirtless.
Mr. Oest said he at first thought a vehicle had crashed into his house. But he said he quickly realized that didn’t make sense because the noise came from behind his home and away from the road.
Then he saw that his back door had been knocked in, making him wonder whether someone had tried to break in.
“The door jamb was blown out into the middle of the room,” he said.
Stepping onto his back deck, Mr. Oest saw that his neighbor’s house was gone. In its place was a rubble field over which dust and pieces of pink insulation floated.
“It wasn’t smoke, there was no smoke involved,” he said. “It was a debris field.”
Mr. Oest said he saw a firefighter walking up the lane and wondered how the department had responded so quickly. He later found out that it was one of the firefighters who was standing next to the home when it exploded. The firefighter didn’t appear to be badly injured, he said.
When he smelled gas, he told his daughter to put on her shoes. In her hurry, Mr. Oest said, she put on a pair of boots instead of her flip- flops.
He tried to catch his dog, which ran out of the broken door, but his daughter told him there wasn’t time.
He said his daughter was terrified and told him, “Dad, I’m never going back.”
Mr. Oest returned to his home later and found his dog sitting on the couch — some relief to go along with the knowledge that no one had been killed in the explosion.
“I would think that anybody involved in that would be dead,” he said.