Dover, PA- A powerful house explosion blew out bricks and knocked down a wall on Friday but didn’t injure anyone, authorities said.
Charles Pike, 82, the sole occupant of the house his family owns, said he had left to attend his yoga class at the Dover YMCA just moments before the explosion tore apart his home of 15 years.
“It’s God’s providence,” Pike told the York Daily Record as he sat in the rain while firefighters put out a fire that followed the blast. “I left two minutes before the explosion. Two minutes!”
The cause of the blast in Dover Township, in southern Pennsylvania, remained under investigation.
The damage left the house structurally unsound, Northern York County Regional Police Lt. David Lash said.
“The southern wall was blown off,” Lash said. “The bricks were blown off of the entire structure, and the entire house, including an addition, was heavily damaged by fire and water.”
Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania shut off the home’s natural-gas supply and checked for leaks, but it was unclear whether this was a gas explosion, spokesman Russ Bedell said.