The Westminster explosion that shook a neighborhood in Denver left a home demolished and damaged others. Authorities said that the explosion was caused by a likely natural gas leak.
“I thought a plane had crashed, or it was a bomb, a terrorist,” neighbor Monique Gallegos told the Denver Post.
Her windows broke, a ceiling fan broke and crashed to the floor, and a piece of art fell off the wall.
“My daughter and I kept smelling gas. She said, ‘Mama, I can smell gas.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do too’ and [the smell] kept coming and fading and everything. And all of a sudden there was a big old boom,” relative Arlene Gallegos told The Denver Channel.
The Post reported that a a home on the 9300 block of Ingalls Street exploded on 11:35 a.m. on Thursday, scattering rubble across the neighborhood.
“Truly there is not a whole let left in this house,” Westminster firefighter Courtney VanMarter told the paper said. “It’s quite shocking.”
Authorities said that four pets who reside at the home have not been found. Residents of the destroyed home were not located but three people have been contacted in connection with the house.
Fire investigators say the blast is still under investigation.
