Oct. 28 -- An explosion all but leveled a Southeast Austin home Saturday afternoon, sending two people with critical burns to the hospital.
Austin firefighters responded around 1:25 p.m. to the corner of Stonleigh Place and Bendridge Trail, just south of East William Cannon Drive, between Interstate 35 and South Pleasant Valley Road. When officials arrived, they found two people in the front yard, a man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s, with burns to their upper bodies. They are expected to survive.
As of Saturday evening, fire officials were still investigating the cause but Austin Fire Division Chief Thayer Smith said preliminary signs show the incident could have been a natural gas explosion.
Linda Lopata who lives on the street behind the site of the explosion was driving on Stonleigh to the store when the force of the blast lifted her car off the road.
She said she heard the boom before she saw anything. Her neighbor told her "she turned on the oven to cook a pizza and (it) went 'Bam!' " Lopata said, her hands still shaking from the incident.
The blast sent debris — including the home's beams, roof shingles and plywood — flying hundreds of yards away in different directions. Siding was torn off the adjacent house where Ricardo Jaime has lived for three years and inside, parts of the ceiling had collapsed. Jaime wasn't home at the time of the explosion but said the blast damaged his kitchen and living room.
Tony Hernandez, who lives next to Jaime but also wasn't home at the time of the incident, said the explosion punched out a window and caused cracks in his ceiling.
"I had just left 10 to 15 minutes before. My brother just pulled up and said the house down the street was on fire. It was pretty scary," Hernandez said.
Neighbors who lived up to three blocks away said they felt their homes shake.
"We had heard the garage door shake and I thought my dad had ran into the garage with his truck," said Yesenia Esquivel, who was with her mom in the living room sifting through old household items. "We both screamed."
Thayer said the explosion damaged a gas line at the home which caused a fire that continued to burn 45 minutes after the explosion. Thayer said the blast was isolated and no other homes should be affected.
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