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ERIE, Colo. (KDVR) — The owner of a hybrid electric car told FOX31 he’s lucky to be alive after walking through the moments when his garage exploded Tuesday.

Carmelo Maggio was sleeping Tuesday morning when, around 8 a.m., smoke alarms started sounding off and his mom came running to get him and his pets out of the house.

“I look, I see some smoke and then I see it’s coming from the garage and I get super worried because my Jeep was in there,” Maggio said.

Firefighters responded within minutes, rushing to the garage as Maggio, as well as his mom and pets, got out right in time to see the explosion. 

“I’m over there on the street and I watch a big, big boom and this garage door exploded, went mid-air and almost hit a firefighter,” Maggio said. “It was like something you’d see out of a movie. A massive explosion. I’ve just never seen anything like that because we didn’t see any real visible flames. We just saw a bunch of gas and smoke.”

A total of three Mountain View Fire Rescue firefighters were inside the garage when water made contact with the electric vehicle’s battery, officials said, causing that explosion.

That explosion knocked firefighters who were in the garage off their feet.

Mountain View Fire’s Deputy Marshal Doug Saba tells FOX31, at the exact moment of the explosion, one member of the crew was directly in front of it.

“There was a battalion chief that was walking in front of the door,” Saba said. “The door actually cleared him and nicked his helmet, but he’s fine.”

While his Jeep is now totaled, Maggio feels extremely fortunate his family and pets were uninjured too. 

“The gas that they let off is super toxic and dangerous to humans, so if this happened during the middle of the night, it could have been a lot worse,” Maggio said. “I’m really thankful everyone was okay.”

Saba told FOX31 Mountain View Fire has responded to three battery-related fires in their district, all within the last week and a half.

Saba suggests taking the charger off your vehicle as soon as the battery hits 100% charge. If your battery feels hot, Saba says that is an indication it is failing.