An explosion at a home in Bel Air, Maryland, on Sunday morning killed two people and injured one, authorities said.
Those killed were a utility contractor who was already at the property checking out a reported gas leak, and the 73-year-old homeowner who was preparing to meet with a real estate agent that day to put the house on the market, Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire said.
The injured were local residents who suffered cuts and bruises and refused medical treatment.
Alkire said at an afternoon press conference that the identities of those who died would be released by the coroner at a later date.
“He was actually getting his house ready to sell today,” Alkire said of the 73-year-old man.
The man, who was in a wheelchair, was found dead in the rubble after the explosion. Investigators are focusing their investigation on the source of the gas leak and plan to stay at the scene for up to three weeks to determine the exact cause, Alkire said.
He said the power issues in the area were reported to Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. on Saturday night, and BGE planned to send crews out in the morning to address the problem.
Meanwhile, Harford County Public Works crews were on the scene Sunday morning, spray-painting markings on water and sewer mains and warning workers there not to dig, said Joe Craster, the county’s chief operating officer.
He said the crew’s duties were unrelated to reporting gas or electric problems, which is the purview of the utility company. A county crew smelled gas while working and called BGE to make the initial report, Cluster said.
County workers left, Alkire said, and crews from Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. arrived — and then the explosion happened.
Alkire said the utility worker who died was a contractor for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. In a statement, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. said its contractors were “on-site responding to an electrical service issue at the time of the incident.”
Hammer Utilities, a company that specializes in contracting underground utility work, said in a statement that it employed the dead worker.
Alkire said at a recent news conference that the Harford County Fire and Rescue Service was dispatched to a 911 call about a gas leak at 6:42 a.m. As emergency personnel approached the scene, they were told there had been a residential explosion, Alkire said.
Alkire said that timeline could be key to the investigation, which involves agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and detectives from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
Harford County Fire Department spokesman Jeffrey Sexton said county firefighters found a pile of debris when they arrived at the scene and requested additional assistance, and he also spoke at a morning briefing.
Video and photos from the scene showed the home where the explosion occurred destroyed and piles of rubble surrounding it, and images showed a neighbouring home also appeared to have been damaged.
“I’ve been in this business for almost 18 years and this is one of the biggest explosions I’ve seen,” Alkire said.
About 60 personnel from multiple fire and emergency services agencies were on scene responding to the explosion, Sexton said.
Alkire said authorities were still assessing the damage but several buildings were believed to have been damaged, including the home of the injured neighbor.
There is no immediate threat to the public from the explosion, but Alkire urged the public to stay away from the “vast debris area around the site” and not to fly personal drones in the airspace.
Lisa Chavritko and her daughter were near the scene of the explosion when it happened.
“We were on the top floor of an apartment building with no elevator, so the whole building shook,” Chaulitko told Baltimore’s NBC affiliate WBAL. “We were about a mile from where the explosion happened, so we thought it was a big earthquake.”
“I thought it was a bomb,” her daughter said.
Megan Weeks wasn’t home when the explosion happened, but she got a call from her wife after the babysitter told her all the windows in the house had been blown out.
“It was pretty scary,” Weeks said. “All I could think about was getting home from work as quickly as possible.”
Fortunately, Weeks’ daughter and the babysitter were unharmed. Weeks’ home sustained damage to the roof, windows, and parts of the interior walls and ceilings.
When Weeks walked to the scene of the explosion, he was shocked by the extent of the destruction.
“I’m actually worried that the same thing could happen to one of our homes,” she said.
