Explosion in Riverside California Destroys One Home, Sets Fire to Another

An explosion leveled one Southern California home, damaged two others and shook the neighborhood before dawn of Friday, according to the Huffington Post.

The said explosion jolted residents awake but caused no apparent injuries. Authorities were called to the home in Riverside, located about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, shortly after four in the morning after neighbors reported hearing the booming blast.

They found the house "completely blown up," said fire Captain Bruce Vanderhost. Eight fire engines were called in to deal with a blaze coming from a gas meter. Television news reports showed a home on Conchise Drive reduced to nothing but twisted metal and blackened wreckage, with a tongue of fire flaring in the middle of it.

The home had been undergoing renovations for about a month and was vacant, said Vanderhost. The Gas Co. said a preliminary investigation has determined that the gas main pipeline and the service line up to the gas meter were in safe operating condition and that no leaking was detected.

Explosion's cause remained under investigation. Vanderhost told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he believes gas built up in the house before the blast. A home next door was also on fire and another had lesser damage, Vanderhost confirmed.

Wayne Keller and his wife were holding their dog, stood outside their badly damaged home, near the house that was leveled. "We heard an explosion and we got out of her bed, and when I came into the front room, both windows on that side of the house, the far side of the house, nothing but fire and flames," he told KABC-TV.

The outside garage door had been blown inward. "It was mayhem," said Keller. "You could hear the gas line just going like crazy".