ADELPHI, Md. --
A family is lucky to be alive after their house was destroyed in an explosion Saturday night.
Brenda Pannebecker and her husband were able to escape unharmed. Now, they are trying to figure out what they can salvage from the place they called home for the last 22 years.
"I would like to punch someone," Pannebecker said. "It would relieve a lot of stress."
Fire officials said the explosion was caused by the release of natural gas from a break in the meter on the outside of the house.
"It's an unknown ignition point," Montgomery County fire spokesman Mark Brady said. "It could be anything, in the basement, the hot water heater, furnace, even static electricity."
What's fueling the frustration in the neighborhood is that residents reported smelling gas in the area two hours before the explosion, which blew out the windows and a wall of the house.
A Washington Gas technician checked out the complaint but found no sign of a leak and left. The explosion happened 26 minutes later.
"I don't feel safe," neighbor Harlene Benn-Smith said. "I don't trust them anymore."
Washington Gas officials said all proper procedures were followed, but the homeowner doesn't agree.
She said she can't help but wonder if the complaint had been handled differently, her house would not be a burned out shell.
"In this high-tech society, can't we invent a meter or something that can pick stuff like this up?" Pannebecker said.
