Corpus Christi, TX – It’s pretty incredible that no one lost their life in the natural gas explosion that destroyed three homes and damaged dozens more this morning.
A 25-year-old and a 60-year-old man inside or near the home were taken to a burn unit in San Antonio for treatment.
The blast was heard and felt not only around this entire neighborhood, but as far away as Portland. It leveled one home, caused another to burn and tore holes through others. People were literally knocked out of their beds..
“I don’t know, I thought it was the end of the world or something, I thought I was gonna die,” one neighbor told us. He showed us how the concussion from the blast knocked his television right off the wall.
It didn’t take him very long to figure out something something bad had happened. His home – like many others – is left in shambles. The damage is so extensive, his bathroom is unusable.
Just one block from the scene of the explosion is James Emerson’s place. He first thought a car had crashed into his house. “When I ran out to the street and started looking around in all directions, that’s when I saw the flames from behind my house.”
The blast knocked out windows, shook dishes from cabinets and ripped holes in the walls. Emerson’s place is trashed, inside and out. He found sheetrock from the house that exploded sitting in his front yard.
16-year-old Erik Phillips showed us a huge hole in the ceiling of his home. It’s the same story throughout with everything thrown to the floor.
Phillips says he stepped outside to see paramedics treating a seriously burned man injured in the explosion. “He was all scorched all the way from his head to.. everywhere all over his body he was scorched and I saw it so just something I’m going to have to live with.”
“I was telling myself that I must be pretty lucky to be alive right now because the house is just right there, the explosion is just right there.”
The names of the two men injured in the explosion haven’t been released yet. The good news is firefighters were able to get ahold of a woman and 2 children feared to have been inside the home that blew up. All three were out of town this morning.
The Red Cross is helping out 18 families directly impacted by the disaster. A short drive around the neighborhood reveals glass crews doing what they can to help. This morning is what impossible to walk in the area without hearing shards crackling beneath your feet.