Explosion rocks area
House destroyed | Investigators try to figure out the cause
An explosion and fire destroyed a Scully Street house and damaged neighbouring homes, sending debris flying as far as two blocks away Monday morning.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m., an explosion at a home at 642 Scully St., near Queen Square, rocked the residential area of downtown Fredericton.
Witnesses said that within a couple of minutes of the explosion, the house was engulfed in flames.
Within half an hour, it was on the verge of collapse.
The explosion blew out windows in the houses on either side of the home. Siding on a home at 632 Scully St. bubbled from the heat of the flames, and the roof at 650 Scully St. smoked.
Firefighters doused the neighbouring homes to protect them as they worked to contain the fire.
Neighbours told The Daily Gleaner that Meredith Hashey owned the ravaged home and that she's vacationing in Florida.
Geraldine Stairs and her husband, who live at 650 Scully St., were home when the explosion occurred.
"The whole side of their house blew out," she said.
The woman said firefighters rushed to the scene and got her and her husband out of the home, she said.
They had to leave so quickly, she said, that her husband, who is blind, had to wear slippers out on the street.
As emergency personnel cleared the area, Stairs and her husband huddled by a police vehicle. She wept, not certain where they'd go. Stairs said Hashey had a natural-gas fireplace.
Darin Jenkins, who lives at 632 Scully St., said he heard a loud noise coming from his neighbour's home earlier in the morning, at about 7:30 a.m., followed by a hissing noise. He said he also smelled gas.
A few hours later, the explosion occurred.
Firefighters were on the scene immediately, Jenkins said.
"They seemed to have a grip on it," he said.
The sound and force of the explosion were so strong that people in the downtown area thought something was happening in the buildings they were in.
"We heard an explosion, and we thought it was something that happened to our house," said Barry Jones, who lives two blocks away on Churchill Row.
Della LeFort was cleaning at the 20/20 Club on Regent Street at the time of the explosion.
"We just assumed the roof collapsed (at Regent Station)," she said, and the staff fled the building.
Jenkins and Stairs said their homes don't have natural gas, but several others on Scully Street do.
Paul Flemming, division chief of prevention and investigation with the Fredericton Fire Department, said firefighters at the York Street station a couple of blocks away heard and felt the explosion.
Crews were on the scene within a couple of minutes.
"The house was completely involved," he said.
Firefighters were relieved that no one was home when the explosion and fire occurred.
He confirmed there was natural gas at 642 Scully St. and that Enbridge Gas NB personnel were on hand to shut down gas to the house.
Flemming said fire investigators would work to determine the cause of the explosion once the blaze was snuffed out.
He said findings as to the potential cause of the explosion and fire wouldn't be available until today. He couldn't say if it was related to the natural-gas service to the home.
City police cordoned off the street over the lunch hour, although there wasn't a full evacuation of the area.
Ambulances responded to the scene as well, but there were no reports of injuries.
Dozens of bystanders gathered shortly after the explosion and watched as firefighters hammered away at the flaming home with water from several hoses.
The searing heat from the fire could be felt across the street.
Within an hour of the explosion, cars parked within a block of the fire were peppered with ash.
Dave Charleson, general manager of Enbridge Gas NB, said the company is waiting to hear from fire investigators about the cause of the explosion and fire and if there's anything it can do to assist.
"There's little that we know at this time," he said.
"It's early to speculate ... We don't want to jump to any conclusions."
If the Scully Street incident proves to be as a result of a natural-gas explosion, Charleson said, it will be the first one in New Brunswick.
Dangerous situations arise with any kind of energy source, he said, and Enbridge wants people to continue to see natural gas as a viable option.
Charleson said the company is in a wait-and-see mode for now. Officials are just relieved no one was hurt.
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