A neighbourhood in Winnipeg’s east side has been rocked by a home explosion that has destroyed at least one house and significantly damaged other structures.
A house on Camrose Bay, off of Coldstream Avenue, exploded around 11:15 a.m. Wednesday in Transcona, the City of Winnipeg posted.
“We’ve had a significant catastrophic explosion of a residence … with damage to adjacent homes and structures,” Scott Wilkinson, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service deputy chief of fire rescue operations, told reporters near the scene as the street behind him pooled with water from firefighting efforts.
Members of the fire department and Winnipeg police are still working to locate the people who live in the home that was destroyed, he said. They don’t know if anyone was home at the time.
Fire crews searched other structures that were damaged by the explosion, and no occupants were found, a Wednesday afternoon news release from the City of Winnipeg said.
All that’s left of the house that exploded is a concrete foundation that firefighters poured water into as smoke rose out of the hole.
There are no reports of injuries to anyone in the neighbouring homes but several are too damaged to allow people to return to live in them. The city will work with those people to support them in whatever way it can, Wilkinson said.
The damaged structures include some across the street from the one that exploded as well as to the rear and to both sides.
Debris from the explosion is scattered around the area, littering rooftops of neighbouring houses.
People who live on the street gathered on nearby sidewalks and boulevards into Wednesday afternoon, waiting to hear when they’d be able to return to their homes.
Karl Lent lives immediately next door to the house that exploded. His roof appeared to be burning at one point and curtains flapped from blown-out windows.
WATCH | Neighbour Karl Lent’s video of the explosion’s aftermath:
Neighbour records aftermath of Winnipeg house explosion
Transcona-area resident Karl Lent was in disbelief as he recorded flames bursting from a house next door to him that exploded on Wednesday morning.
Lent was in his garage when the explosion happened.
“It felt … like an earthquake,” he said. The door to his garage was blown open, and “stuff was blowing in, I was blown over.”
As he dusted himself off and got up, a second explosion knocked him back down.
“Stuff was just flying all over the place. Never seen nothing like that,” he said. “I thought my barbecue blew up, which is right outside my garage door.”
Lent, who has lived in his home for 27 years, said he doesn’t know the older man whose home exploded. The man lived there with a younger woman.
Lent isn’t sure if anyone was home.
“I seen him leave this morning, but he comes and goes. I don’t know if he came back home, ’cause I was in the garage.”
He hadn’t been able to return to his home to see the extent of damage it suffered, but did at one point see his back deck was on fire.
“The back corner of the house is apparently gone,” he said. “What do I do next? Where do I go?”
Few houses had to be evacuated, Deputy Chief Wilkinson said — most people have been able to shelter in place as crews work to extinguish the fires.
It is far too early to speculate on the cause of the explosion, he said, adding he was not aware of any construction happening in the area.
“We don’t have any risks to the community, beyond this, that we’re aware of at this time,” Wilkinson said.
Brandi Neves said she was just getting out of a doctor’s appointment when her phone started blowing up with calls and texts telling her that her house had exploded. She said she raced home, worried about her pets inside, but learned the explosion was at a house a few doors down.
“We were very, very worked up and in a mad panic to get home and just see what the situation was,” she said.
Her family was unable to return to their home early Wednesday afternoon, as fire crews worked on the street. Neves said she was grateful that an officer on the scene was able to go inside the house to get her two puppies from their kennels, but her cat was still inside.
The public is urged to avoid the area to allow emergency crews to manage the scene safely.
The city’s incident response listed 19 emergency units at the scene, including fire and rescue.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation, the city’s news release said.
Scooby, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s accelerant detection dog, is assisting fire investigators at the scene, it said.
