Two people were killed and one person was injured in an explosion at a home in Bel Air, Maryland, on Sunday morning, authorities said.
The deceased were described as a utility contractor who was already at the property to check on a reported gas leak and the 73-year-old homeowner who was preparing that day to meet with a real estate agent about placing the residence for sale, said Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire.
The injured person, a neighbor who suffered cuts and bruises, refused treatment, he said.
The identities of the deceased will be released by a coroner at a later date, Alkire said at an afternoon news conference.
“He was getting ready to put his house up for sale today,” Alkire said of the 73-year-old.
The man used a wheelchair, he said, and his body was found among post-explosion debris at the site. Investigators will be at the property for up to three weeks trying to determine the exact cause, with the source of the gas leak being the focus of the investigation, Alkire said.
He said an electricity problem in the area was reported to the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company on Saturday night, and BGE planned to send a crew in the morning to resolve the problem.
Separately, a Harford County Public Works employee went to the area Sunday morning to mark the land with spray paint above the water and sewer lines in order to warn anyone working there to avoid digging there, Joe Cluster said. , head of the county executive team.
The worker’s assignment had nothing to do with reports of gas or electricity problems, which would be under the utility’s purview, he said. In the middle of this task, the county employee smelled gas and made a first report, Cluster said, notifying BGE.
The county worker left and Baltimore Gas and Electric workers arrived, Alkire said. Then, the explosion happened, he said.
Alkire described the slain utility worker as a contractor for Baltimore Gas and Electric. Baltimore Gas and Electric said in a statement that its contractors were “on site responding to an electrical service issue at the time of the incident.”
Hammer Utility Corp., which specializes in underground utility contracting, said in a statement that it employed the deceased worker.
The Harford County Fire and EMS Association’s dispatch time following the 911 call about the gas leak was 6:42 a.m., Alkire said at a previous news conference. When rescuers approached the scene, they were informed that an explosion had occurred in a house, he said.
The timeline could be key to a joined-up investigation by federal agents and detectives from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Alkire said.
County firefighters found a debris field when they arrived at the scene and called for additional help, said Harford County fire spokesman Jeffrey Sexton, who also spoke at the morning briefing.
Videos and photos from the scene show that the house where the explosion occurred was destroyed, with piles of debris remaining in the surrounding area. A neighbor’s home also appeared damaged, the footage showed.
“I’ve been working for almost 18 years; this is one of the biggest explosions I have ever seen,” Alkire said.
About 60 personnel from various fire agencies and emergency services were on scene to assist with the explosion, Sexton said.
Authorities are still assessing the damage, with several structures expected to be affected, including the residence next door, the home of the injured neighbor, Alkire said.
While there is no current threat to the public from the explosion, Alkire urged the public to stay away from “the vast area of debris that is surrounding the site” and not to fly any personal drones in its airspace.
Lisa Czawlytko and her daughter were close to the explosion when it happened.
“We’re on the top floor of a condominium with no elevator, so the whole building was shaking,” Czawlytko told Baltimore’s NBC affiliate WBAL. “We are about 0.5 km from where the explosion happened and I thought it was a big earthquake.”
“I thought it was a bomb,” said the daughter.
Megan Weeks wasn’t home when the explosion happened, but she received a call from her wife after the nanny told her that all the windows in their house had exploded.
“It was very scary,” Weeks said. “All I could think about was getting off work and getting home as quickly as possible.”
Fortunately, the daughter and nanny were not injured. Weeks’ home sustained damage to the roof, windows and even some interior walls and ceiling.
Weeks was shocked by the magnitude of the destruction when she walked to the site of the explosion.
“I’m actually nervous — I mean, this could very well happen to one of our houses too,” she said.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
