BEL AIR, Maryland – Two people were killed and 12 families were left homeless when a house exploded in Maryland on Sunday. Reports say there was a possible gas leak, fire officials said.
Neighbors described feeling and hearing the early morning explosion, which damaged several surrounding homes in Bel Air, a city about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.
Firefighters were called to the area around 6:40 a.m. because of a gas leak and smell of gas outside, said Oliver Alkire, a deputy fire marshal with the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Alkire said as firefighters got closer, they received calls that the house had exploded. First responders pronounced one person dead at the scene, and a second body was later found in the rubble.
Alkire said a home adjacent to the explosion was heavily damaged and a woman in that home was being treated at the scene for injuries. Two utility workers were in the area to fix a reported electrical problem, but authorities did not immediately say if that was related to the explosion.
The first victim found was later identified as a contractor for the utility company BGE, according to a statement from the Harford County Fire and Rescue Department.
The state fire marshal’s office said late Sunday that the second body had been found in the rubble of the house at the center of the explosion. The person is believed to be the home’s 73-year-old owner, but positive identification has yet to be made, fire officials said in a statement.
Investigators were also trying to determine how many homes were damaged and the extent of the blast radius. Harford County fire officials said at least 12 families were left homeless due to damage to neighboring homes. Authorities said there was no ongoing threat to the public.
“I’ve been on the job for almost 18 years and this is one of the biggest explosions I’ve ever seen,” Alkire said.
A photo posted by county authorities shows several firefighters working on the wreckage of the house, with another damaged house visible in the background. Charred pieces of wood were scattered on the property, insulation and wood splinters were scattered on the street. Small pieces of debris were hanging from surrounding trees. Later that morning, rescue workers could be seen using heavy equipment to search through the rubble.
More than 60 emergency personnel from various agencies arrived on the scene. The state fire marshal, sheriff and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted with the investigation, as is standard.
Lisa Czawlytko, who lives in a nearby apartment complex, said the explosion woke her and her three children and knocked a pet bird to the ground.
She said the roof structure of four apartment blocks had collapsed and aluminum cladding had fallen from the roof to the ground. She attended a news conference at a nearby library to ask officials if it was safe to be in the building.
She said she felt the force of the explosion.
“The whole building shook like a major earthquake,” she said in an interview.
Her 8-year-old daughter described it as scary when her mother asked her how she felt when it happened.
“I thought a bomb had fallen,” said Myca.
The explosion woke Greg Clifford from a deep sleep in his townhouse about a block away. He initially thought a tree had fallen on his patio or a lightning strike had caused the loud noise.
“It just shook everything,” Clifford said. “It was incredibly loud.”
He also noticed some damage to his house.
“The window in my bedroom is ripped off the frame of the house,” Clifford said. “I mean, I can look right down onto my patio. My basement door – the glass – didn’t shatter, but it flew in and my frame is all broken.”
