Natural gas blamed
Natural gas was the source of the explosion that destroyed a downtown Fredericton home Monday, a fire investigator confirmed Tuesday.
Paul Fleming, division chief of prevention and investigation with the Fredericton Fire Department, said the fire that destroyed the 642 Scully St. home Monday was the result of a natural-gas explosion.
"It's no question it's natural gas," he said.
The focus of the investigation now is to determine what caused the explosion, what kind of leak might have arisen or if there was a failure in a gas line or fixture, he said.
Monday's incident is the first natural-gas explosion in New Brunswick.
Flemming said the fire department has been in contact with the homeowners and a family member is expected to be back in Fredericton today to survey the site.
Neighbours told The Daily Gleaner that 642 Scully St. is the home of Meredith Hashey, who winters in Florida.
Her son, Andy Hashey, said the loss of the home is upsetting.
"They're devastated," said Hashey, speaking from Florida, where he was vacationing with family this week.
In an unusual development, he said, the family was able to view video of the home engulfed in flames on the video website YouTube.
While distraught by the loss of the property, Hashey said, the family is relieved that property was the only thing that was lost.
"I'm very, very, very happy nobody was injured or killed," he said.
Dave Charleson, general manager of Enbridge Gas NB, said the company still hasn't had confirmation that it was a natural-gas explosion.
He said the company has an investigator on site working with investigators from the Fredericton Fire Department.
It's too early to speculate about the cause of the explosion, he said, but Enbridge is interested in seeing things through.
"We want to understand the exact circumstances surrounding that," Charleson said.
If necessary, he said, Enbridge will determine if the company or the industry as a whole needs to take any corrective measures to prevent something similar from occurring in the future.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVubOi4LzBY
I live in one of the nearby apartment buildings. For the record, I was unable to smell anything out of the ordinary that morning. Everything seemed normal until the blast rocked my apartment. As stated, nobody was home in the affected building. It is possible that if someone was home, they would have noticed and taken appropriate action before any harm was done.