An explosion at an Ohio home on Tuesday killed two people, injured one and sent debris flying through the neighborhood, authorities said.
It is not yet known what caused the explosion in Bethel, which occurred shortly before 9 a.m. and set the house on fire.
“I just heard a big bang, looked out the window and saw it was gone,” said a 911 caller.
Several residents said the explosion shook their homes and caused minor damage.
“Felt the shock wave and fell out of bed,” neighbor Derrick Gullett told CBS affiliate WKRC. ‘I got dressed and went outside to see what happened. And when I went outside, the insulation was snowing. Pieces of the house in my driveway, in my garden.’
Neighbors captured the fiery aftermath on cellphone video and also searched for victims.
“I tried to listen, maybe if they were under the rubble,” neighbor Stephanie Young told WKRC. “Because the whole house was like a pile of wood, insulation.”
The blast killed a man and a woman, Bethel Tate Fire Chief Christopher Cooper said. Another man suffered burns and was treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, he said.
“He comes running out of the house,” Gullet said of the survivor. “His hair was still on fire. We gave him water and tried to calm him down.”
The names of the three people were not released and it was not immediately clear whether any of them lived in the home.
“We’re sifting through the rubble, trying to figure out where the fire started,” Cooper told reporters.
The Ohio State Fire Marshal will lead the investigation into the explosion. Bethel is a village in Tate Township in southwestern Ohio.
