Oct. 11—Henry Schwartzman sat on his sofa watching TV on Sunday night when he was suddenly thrown to the floor, and his possessions started falling on him. The house next to his, he recounted, had exploded, and the only thing insulating him from the blast had been two cars and the wall of his home.
People knocking at his front door told him to get out of the house, and he saw billowing black smoke and a jet of flame shooting upward when he left it.
Now a man is in critical but stable condition at a hospital after a home on the 2500 block of Thornberry Drive exploded Sunday night in Edgewood, fire officials said.
The Maryland State Fire Marshal said in a tweet shortly after 11 p.m. that deputy state fire marshals were investigating an explosion on Thornberry Drive.
One man was inside the home but was able to get out, officials said. The man was transported to Johns Hopkins Bayview in critical condition.
The homes on either side of where the explosion took place were damaged, but no other injuries were reported, the agency said.
Patches of blue tarp cover Schwartzman's home, which neighbors the property that exploded. The house's corner closest to the explosion — where he had been sitting — was scorched, and his two cars were ruined in the blast. Debris and twisted metal were piled on the property that exploded around the few charred matchsticks of the home's structure that still stood Monday. Glass littered the lawns of properties across the road.
Oliver Alkire, a senior deputy state fire marshal, said the office was examining the possibility that the man was "tinkering" with the stove in the lead-up to the explosion, but that is only one theory. Investigators will need to speak with the man before they can draw any conclusions.
"That is certainly one of the theories that we're going to look at," Alkire said.
Alkire said investigators are concentrating their attention on the kitchen area and that the blast occurred within the home. While BGE was still on scene as of Monday morning, Alkire said the office has no reason to believe BGE's gas lines or equipment were faulty.
The man suffered third-degree burns to his upper body and arms, Alkire said. Investigators were told Monday that a neighborhelped pull the man and one of his dogs out of the back of the home.
The man was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center to be treated for burns. He was in critical but stable condition Monday morning, Alkire said.
Also in the home were two dogs, both of whom were recovered, Alkire said. On Monday morning, he said a cocker spaniel popped out of the rubble and was taken to the Harford County Humane Society for temporary housing.
The Joppa-Magnolia VFC tweeted that it and the Harford County Department of Emergency Services received multiple reports of the explosion at Thornberry Drive and Arbor Court at 9:22 p.m. The area is between Sequoia Drive and Hartwood Lane in a neighborhood north of Edgewood High.
When firefighters first arrived, streets were "heavily covered in debris," which was reported up to several blocks away, the fire company said. Firefighters were able to keep damage to the two adjacent homes to a minimum. Alkire said the debris is not of value to the investigation and area residents should feel free to remove it.
The volunteer fire company tweeted around 1 a.m. that the fire was out. The tweet said residents from the damaged homes were being assisted by the Red Cross and that 42 fire & EMS personnel were at this scene.
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