Blast destroys house
Aug. 28, 2006. 02:44 PM
TAMARA CHERRY
STAFF REPORTER



Two people have been taken to hospital after a house exploded near Queensway E. and Cawthra Rd. in Mississauga this morning.

Police and emergency crews were called to the house on Duchess Dr. shortly before 8 a.m., where "they found the home literally destroyed," according to Peel police Const. Craig Platt.

One man inside the house at the time of the explosion was taken to hospital with serious, but not life-threatening injuries. Platt wouldn't say if he was the owner of the home, but did say he "had some interest in relation to that property."

Neighbours saw him waving a two-by-four to get attention before firefighters pulled him from the rubble. He suffered broken bones to the chest area, as well as some cuts and bruises, Platt said.

Steve Allen, out for his morning walk, was passing the house when it exploded. Coincidentally, Allen owned the home 10 years ago, but had moved to a nearby street, neighbours said.

He suffered multiple cuts to the right side of his body and was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He will be released shortly, Platt said.

"It's remarkable that anyone in that house survived," Platt said as he watched firefighters spray water onto the smoking rubble.

A handful of surrounding houses will remain evacuated until utility workers and building engineers have inspected the properties and deemed them safe, Platt said.

The Office of the Fire Marshall is on scene and said it's too early to determine what caused the explosion, but it appears to have been a fuel-related explosion. Investigators are studying the area to ensure there is no natural gas or methane in the ground that would suddenly cause a house to explode.

"If a crime has been committed, it will be determined and we'll continue on with that course of the investgation," Platt said. The Morality Bureau, which would be called in in the case of a drug lab, has not been called, Platt said.

"Every piece of debris may be important in determining what happened."

Police have blocked off traffic to all residential streets in the area, but the Queensway and Cawthra remain open.

Jackie McRobert was in a “deep sleep” just a few houses away across the street when she was awoken by what she thought was “one huge loud crash of thunder.”

“I put the window blind up and I saw a bunch of neighbours running down the street,” she recalled. “Black smoke was billowing up and flames were shooting up maybe 20 feet in the air.

“It was just a tremendous explosion and the house is levelled. There is just debris everywhere. Bricks and lumber and stone - it’s just a mess.”

The explosion shook every house in the area, as far as “several streets away,” McRobert said. “Several people had things come off their walls.”

A tent has been set up outside McRobert’s house to accommodate the fire crews in the area, she said. “Every fire truck in Mississauga is parked outside our door.”

The house had been sold to a new family just a few weeks ago, McRobert said, adding she hadn’t yet met her new neighbours.

“If they were inside, they would be more than injured, because everything was levelled,” she said. “I’ve never witnessed or heard of anything like this or as severe as this,” she said.

Jim Clark was a few blocks away in a warehouse office building on Haines Rd. when he heard what sounded like an explosion and felt his building shake.

"I was just working away and thought, 'Wow, what was that?'" Clark said as firetrucks streamed into the area. "Our whole building shook. I thought something fell on it."

"I went downstairs and there were all kinds of people coming out thinking, 'What the hell's going on?' I walked down to the end of the building and we could see the smoke coming out."

No other details surrounding what may have caused the explosion are available at this time, McCallion said.

Anyone with information about the explosion is asked to call Peel detectives at (905) 453-3311 ext. 1233 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.

-with files from Jim Wilkes

my bet is they moved a cooker or a gas fire and it got damaged in the move,

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It says that new people had moved into the house a few weeks earlier..my bet is they moved a cooker or a gas fire and it got damaged in the move, they connected it up and its been leaking small amounts of gas for days and days..finally something ignited it and BOOM!

Freaky gas explosions happen a lot in the UK for some reason..when I was growing I rememebr a house getting totalled like this.

Check this out from BBC news..

BBC news