Texas House Explosion: 6 People Injured As Blast Levels Home

Six people were injured Monday following an explosion in Plano, Texas, that leveled a house and resulted in damage to nearby homes.

The local fire department said one of the injured was inside the house when it exploded, while five others injured were inside a home next door, NBC News reported. The ages of the injured people were not immediately confirmed, but three of them were children, officials said.

In helicopter footage, debris could be seen scattered around the neighbourhood in Cleveland Drive. Pieces of wood littered the front yard area.

Photos also showed debris covering a vehicle nearby, while the damaged house was reduced to rubble. Some walls of the house were still standing, albeit with shattered corners.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the homes on either side of the damaged property suffered some damage as well but remain standing. Plano-Fire Rescue spokeswoman Capt. Peggy Harrell said one of the houses “has received major, major damage – in fact, most likely destroyed.”

Fire officials ordered residents to keep off the blasted area, and both electricity and gas were shut down within the affected block. Speaking with ABC affiliate WFAA, neighborhood resident Wesley said the explosion sounded like a lightning strike.

Wesley said he heard “an extremely aggressive lightning strike, and right after that, two big booms, and I was extremely confused.” The resident added that his house’s walls vibrated following the explosion and his home was left with some cracks on the foundation.

Heather Presley, another neighbor living around a mile and a half from the destroyed home, said she thought it could have been a transformer that blew up as it has happened in the area in the past.

Neighbor Caroline Klobas also told CBS-owned KTVT that the roof in her home’s garage “caved in.” Klobas said she initially thought that her property’s sliding glass door broke as two picture frames on the wall fell on the ground.

KTVT correspondent Andre Lucia, who was on the scene after the explosion, tweeted that she saw a woman being wheeled out on a stretcher. She added that an “alert little boy” who had his arm bandaged was also wheeled out of the scene.

The local fire department is yet to release a reason for the explosion following investigations. Atmos Energy and Oncor workers arrived at the scene to help out with the probe.

A bomb-sniffing dog with the city’s bomb squad could not immediately detect explosives at the scene.