Fire investigators said a private contractor hit and ruptured a gas line before a powerful explosion that leveled a home in Haymarket, Virginia, leaving two couples and their children without a home.
Prince William County Fire and Rescue said the contractor was working on replacing the water line to the home on Coby Hunt Court when the gas line was struck.
Firefighters came shortly after 4 p.m. and evacuated the home, along with the neighboring houses. Washington Gas arrived to the home about an hour later to make repairs, but the home exploded a short time after, fire officials said.
Two couples and their young children lived in the home, and the families lost everything. No injuries were reported, according to the fire department, but the families’ pets are believed to have died in the explosion.
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“I mean honestly, you can see everything go away in an instant and you realize you have nothing,” said Jarrett Struniak, who lived in the home with his fiancee and 3-year-old daughter. “It’s frustrating and demoralizing.”
Struniak said he was relieved his loved ones were OK.
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“You can't really do anything about it. You can be angry, but what’s that going to do? You’re being angry at the wind,” he said. “The silver lining is that nobody was hurt. Not a firefighter, not a city worker, not a single person in the cul de sac was hurt, and that’s really great in itself.”
Crews spent much of the day Wednesday sifting through the wreckage.
Washington Gas was still working to repair the damaged gas line.
The blast rattled neighbors, some of whom were standing outside at the time.
"I'm standing there and my back's to it. It's just this boom!," neighbor Rob Karas said. "Last night my whole back hurt and I was in pain. And it blew out my garage and then there was some debris."
"I just heard a loud boom and I screamed because I got really scared," neighbor Mouna Karas said.
Struniak said the work at the home was supposed to be a routine repair. When workers hit the gas line, he said he had no idea there would be an explosion.
“You could smell gas and they were addressing it, you know, nothing, it wasn't shut down,” Angie Rick, another neighbor, said Tuesday.
Investigators are still working to learn what ignited the explosion.
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