Exploding Home

You don't hear about homes exploding very often, but it happens. In the last 6 months there have been two in Utah. At 3:20 this morning I got a call that a home had exploded in Pleasant Grove. It had happened the night before and was breaking news in the 10 p.m. show. That meant that my day would consist of being at the explosion site talking to neighbors, investigators, and business owners in the area who felt the blast. Now at 3:20 a.m. I am already walking out the door, so no big deal, except the fact that I had to get into the station, which is 30 minutes away, then get back on the road in 30 minutes after writing 2 weak versions of the story, and then drive 45 minutes to make it to the location in order to make the first live hit at 5:30. We almost did it! However, we hit a snag. When we got to the property, we were met by a nice police officer who did not want us there. We ended up having to park the live truck about 100 yards away and run cable to the debris. By the time we did that, the anchors had read my story. Then comes the 6 a.m. hit, all is well. 6:30, live shot dies. The signal gets lost. 6:50 a.m. It's like I never existed. No live shot, no signal. Grrr! All that rush for nothing. Well, we stayed at the site the rest of the morning gathering our story for the noon show, we talked to people who felt the blast, had their homes damaged, and were even evacuated. The one thing they all said, which I thought was cool, was that they didn't care about the damage to their property, they were just glad no one got hurt. I will echo that comment. It is a miracle no one was hurt or even killed in this explosion. The house literally blew up.

Investigators told me that the cause was a natural gas leak and that the furnace blew up.

The debris went about 100 yards in each direction, including up.

This neighbor lives about 60 yards away. 7 windows on his house were shattered. 5 seconds before it happened he was standing at the window on the left. He had just closed the shutters, sat down at his computer, and then boom! He said he was covered in glass. He also told me he is in the army and that the explosion brought back all kinds of bad memories.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

PLEASANT GROVE -- Fire officials are investigating the cause of an explosion that destroyed a Pleasant Grove house, broke neighbors' windows and prompted the evacuation of several nearby homes.

No one was in the house, and no injuries have been reported. Pleasant Grove Marshal Chief Steven Brande said late Thursday the house was vacant and a search and rescue team found no one in the rubble. But the explosion, which could be heard and felt for miles, did cause a lot of damage.

Witnesses reported the smell of natural gas after the blast a little before 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the home at 385 E. 100 South.

Some neighbors said the blast felt like a car hitting their house.

"The whole house shook," said Kevin Lindstrom. "Everything fell off the walls. I thought someone ran into my house with their car being on First East. (I) came outside and you could hear gas just pouring out everywhere."

The scene has stirred up quite a reaction from residents in the area. Many have stopped by Friday morning to see the damage after feeling Thursday night's explosion. Neighbor Daryl Peterson, who lives about 60 yards from the house, said he had seven windows shattered.

"It was literally a foot behind me where one of the big windows blew in and got glass on me," he said. "I was just glad I wasn't at the window when it happened."

Investigators have been on scene all morning trying to determine what caused the explosion. They say they believe it was a natural gas leak because of the way the debris pattern follows the openings in the house. They pinpointed it to an old furnace that was buried deep in debris in a crawl space near the back of the house.

Overall, the explosion caused damaged to at least five buildings. It also blew debris about 100 yards from the house in each direction. There was even debris stuck about 100 feet in the air in a tree that sits on the north edge of the property.

No one was injured during this explosion, which is remarkable considering where the house is located and the fact there are businesses and homes that surround it. There is the Purple Turtle restaurant across the street that sits along 100 East, a popular street in Pleasant Grove.

Investigators say their next step will be going through that debris, removing it a section at a time, hoping to find more answers.