May 20--FALL CREEK -- Ken Naus stood across the street Sunday afternoon, surveying what was left of his neighbors' home.
Several hours earlier, Naus had been sitting in his recliner when he saw Brian and Jennifer Pederson's town of Washington home at 1427 Partridge Road -- about 5 1/2 miles east of Altoona off Highway SS -- explode.
"It was quite a big boom," said Naus, who estimated debris from the single-story home flew 250 feet in the air. "My ears are still ringing."
Stunned, he quickly called 911 and then went outside to shoo people away.
Firefighters from Township Fire Department were dispatched to the scene at 12:10 p.m. and found the Pedersons' home was completely destroyed, said Mark Porter, the Fire Department's public information officer. No fire resulted from the blast.
The Pedersons and their three children were on vacation out of state, according to neighbors.
Fire Department officials haven't determined what caused the blast, which was heard and felt in Altoona, Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, but Porter said the home was serviced by LP gas and had both electric and LP appliances.
"Thank goodness nobody got hurt," Naus said. "That's a miracle."
However, a neighbor was transported to an area hospital for heat exhaustion, firefighters at the scene said.
Shortly before the blast, Debbie Streveler, whose home at 1413 Partridge Road is just north of the Pederson house, had been outside hanging laundry on a clothesline facing the explosion.
"Had she been outside a little longer, she could have been hurt or killed," said a visibly shaken Gary Streveler, Debbie's husband of 40 years.
Instead, the couple, along with their chocolate Lab, were downstairs when their neighbors' home blew up.
"We didn't know what it was," said Gary Streveler during a walk-through of their home of 10 years. "It was the loudest thing I've ever heard in my entire life."
The blast shifted the southside wall of their home, shattered several windows, knocked dishes out of the cupboards and knickknacks off the walls and cracked a number of walls and ceilings throughout the house.
The explosion also ripped a hole in the southside wall of the couple's pole building and littered their yard and trees with insulation and other debris.
"Thankfully, no one was hurt," said Streveler as he stood among the broken glass and pieces of wood and metal scattered about his yard. Because of the structural damage to their home, he and his wife weren't allowed to stay there.
Five neighboring homes sustained damage, Porter said at the scene, which looked like Mother Nature had unleashed another snowstorm on the neighborhood with flakes of insulation. Yellow tape surrounded the Pederson property to keep people out.
"I don't care about my house," said Naus, noting the explosion blew out a window and knocked over a curio cabinet at his home across the street from the Pedersons. "I feel bad for them. They're going to come home to nothing."
In the Pedersons' backyard, a swing set still stood, as did a pole building with a pushed-in garage door.
Vicky Carlino, who lives on neighboring Pheasant Road, heard the explosion from her home and thought an electrical substation to the west might have blown up. However, when she went outside and saw the insulation, she realized the blast had come from the east and headed over to Partridge Road.
"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "It looked like a bomb went off."
Carlino began picking up the Pederson children's artwork from neighboring yards. She and others later began collecting what was left of the family's belongings -- bedding, clothing, stuffed animals and other items -- from the rubble, putting them in boxes and plastic totes.
Firefighters from the Altoona Fire Department provided mutual aid. Deputies from the Eau Claire County sheriff's office also responded to the scene.
Before Sunday's blast, it had been more than a decade since Township firefighters had responded to a home explosion.
On March 21, 2000, the town of Brunswick home of Richard and Kitty Moen exploded. She and the couple's two children were home at the time and were injured in the blast.
O'Brien can be reached at 715-830-5838, 800-236-7077 or [email protected].
Copyright 2013 - The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.
