MI – By Stan Donaldson, Free Press – A natural gas main leak caused a New Baltimore home to explode and obliterated the residence in the 5700 block of Jefferson early Tuesday morning, fire officials said.
New Baltimore Fire Chief Ken Lawfield said the explosion occurred at 2:30 a.m. just moments after a man who lived in the two-story, three-bedroom home called 911 to tell them he smelled gas inside of the residence. The family was able to get out unharmed, but the $300,000 home was a complete loss.
Lawfield said the fire from the explosion was controlled in a few hours and said firefighters from Chesterfield and Ira townships assisted. He said investigators could not determine what ignited the gas leak. Lawfield also said a fire fighter at the department suffered minor injuries after a wall collapsed on him, but said the firefighter went back to work a few hours later.
No other homes were damaged by the explosion.