Seattle, WA- A man and woman were in the hospital Monday morning following an explosion and fire at a North Seattle house.
There was a natural gas leak nearby on Sunday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the leak called the explosion and five.
The house, at 12327 Fifth Ave. N.E., was destroyed within minutes of the 6:05 a.m. explosion. Two residents were rushed to Harborview Medical Center with significant injuries; dozens of neighbors were removed from their homes as a precaution.
It was a mushroom cloud of black smoke, neighbor Patty Tirgan said. And it was just like these little pockets of fire and then all of a sudden it just broke out in to like this huge bonfire, and trees were catching on fire.
Her son’s bedroom window was blown out. Tirgan said she thought the explosion could have been an airplane crash, or a thunderclap inches above her home.
It shook the whole house, Tirgan said.
As neighbors were running around, Tirgan saw that a mattress had been thrown from the home and glass covered the alley between her house and the burning house.
Claudia Paulson, another neighbor across, said the explosion shook pictures from her wall and her rear door frame was cracked.
The blast was so loud that it woke North Seattle residents a mile from the house.
Within minutes, Tirgan said, only the eves of the one-story home were left. She wasn’t sure how anyone could have made it out alive.
A woman in her 50s had burns to most of her body and was critical condition late Monday morning, Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said. A man was in serious condition.
Both were outside when firefighters arrived at the two-alarm blaze, but it was not clear how they got there.
Neighbors, including Tirgan, believed the explosion was related to a natural gas leak that occurred in the neighborhood Sunday.
The leak occurred around 2 p.m. because of a corroaded water line that interfered with a gas line, Moore said. Some homes were evacuated and Puget Sound Energy crimped off the line and residents were allowed back in about 5 p.m.
Tirgan said roads were blocked from Northeast 123rd Street to Northeast 120th Street on Eighth Avenue Northeast.
Puget Sound Energy was at the scene Monday checking yards for possible gas leaks. Moore said he would not speculate on a connection between the Sunday gas leak and the fire.