Explosion levels Mississauga home
A massive explosion obliterated a home in Mississauga Tuesday, killing a woman, injuring as many as nine others and causing extensive damage to surrounding houses.
The blast at 4: 22 p. m. left insulation falling like snow, building materials strewn across rooftops and the residential street west of Toronto covered in debris, looking like the aftermath of a tornado.
The cause was not immediately clear, but early speculation centred on a gas leak. There was no lingering fire, and smoke from the blast soon dissipated, but first responders wore masks to protect themselves from air thick with particulate.
Interviews with neighbours suggested a middle- age couple with no children lived in the house on Hickory Drive.
The identity of the dead woman was not immediately released.
Peel Police said there were “multiple injuries,” but paramedics reported no one had been taken to hospital. Nine people were assessed and treated at triage centres set up on the scene. The dead woman was pronounced on the scene, and the search for victims continued last night, after police established a wide area of evacuation, with a co- ordinated shutoff of gas service.
Bonnie Crombie, mayor of Mississauga, was on scene last night and said 25 homes were damaged, and their residents taken away on buses. As many as 100 people are thought to have been ordered to leave their homes.
The owner of a grocery that backs on to Hickory Drive described a “huge explosion,” and a restaurant owner said his staff and customers ran outside to see what happened.
Claudio Cugliari, a freel ance photographer who lives nearby, said he rushed to the scene when he heard what at first seemed like a “thunderclap,” followed by a plume of smoke.
“Then I knew it was something else,” he said. “When I got there, it looked like the aftermath of a tornado, strewn two- by- fours, lumber, aluminum, all over the street... There was nothing left of the house.”
He described a scene of panicked disorder, with residents coming out of their homes to take photographs, and a few police officers who had been on bicycle patrol nearby and were first on the scene. He said he saw police assisting people in evacuating their homes, but did not see any injured people.
He said one officer, whose badge number he has, ordered him to stop taking photographs, then grabbed his lens, tried to throw it to the ground, and punched him in the face.
In aerial news footage, firefighters could be seen stepping over the remains of a house that was destroyed, with the houses next door severely damaged, and the surrounding roofs covered in debris.
“I thought it must have been a pipeline or something right beside us. It’s so, so close ... It shattered all the glass from the condo right beside us, too. We’re OK... When you hear something that loud, you don’t know what to think. You’re just in shock. My ear was ringing,” said Dario, the owner of Lezzet Shawarma Falafel House on Dixie Road, who preferred not to give his last name.
“There’s almost nothing left — we’ve had customers that were coming by, and they live next to it, and they said there’s just the foundation left of the one house. That’s it. The rest is nothing,” he said.
Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans said she had no details about the person who was found dead.
“We’re in the very initial stages of the investigation,” Evans said.
“We have to determine if this is a criminal investigation or if this is an accident.”
IT LOOKED LIKE THE AFTERMATH OF A TORNADO.