WESTMINSTER, Colo. (KDVR) — The Westminster Fire Department says a home exploded early Tuesday morning.
Investigators with Westminster’s police and fire departments, along with agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, are working to determine what caused the house to explode. With the help of a cadaver dog, search teams located the remains of one person at the destroyed home.
The moment of the explosion in the 7700 block of Knox Court was caught on camera by a home surveillance camera across the street.
Blaine Leishman shared video of the home explosion with FOX31 and Channel 2. A few seconds into the video, you can hear a loud boom and then a see debris flying across the screen. Then a few seconds later, smoke is spotted in the distance.
Neighbors described being woken up at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday to a loud boom.
“We just heard a huge explosion noise. All of our art came off the wall in our bedroom. It sounded like an earthquake or something,” Megan Royal said.
Neighbors say they had concerns about the house but never imagined something like this would happen.
“The city had condemned that house,” Corrine Anaya said. “There was a sign that said do not trespass. There was all the windows boarded up because of the fire that happened in April of last year.”
Still, many neighbors described seeing two brothers coming and going from the home as recently as a few days ago.
“If I understand correctly, that house did not have power or natural gas because it had been condemned before,” Anaya said. “So they might have been trying to keep themselves warm using propane or something, something they weren’t supposed to be using. I don’t know.”
Fire investigators and detectives will continue to try to figure out what caused the explosion. It could take several weeks before they have any official answers. Two homes next door sustained extensive damage, along with several cars across the street.
WFD said several homes were evacuated due to gas leaks. Xcel shut off gas to the area around 5:15 a.m., but residents were let back in to most homes a short time later