Castle Rock, CO- Five people a woman and four children were taken to the hospital Friday morning after a natural gas explosion destroyed a home in Castle Rock.
The explosion happened shortly after 7 a.m., said Art Morales, chief of the Castle Rock Fire Department.
The home destroyed was 6942 Sulphur Lane, in the Sapphire Pointe neighborhood, according to a Castle Rock media release.
Neighbors reported smelling gas shortly before the explosion, Morales said.
“We were sleeping when all of a sudden, ‘boom.’ I was up instantly,” said Kyle Albert, a 16-year-old who lives at the end of the cul-de-sac where the home exploded.
Kyle and his younger brother Ryan, 14, were asleep when the house exploded, rattling items off the shelves of their home.
“We thought a plane crashed into our house,” Kyle said.
Ryan said he went with his brother to the window and all they could see was rubble, so they grabbed their shoes and sprinted outside.
“The first thing I thought was ‘Oh God, I have to go help,'” Kyle said.
A woman was inside the home with four young children, whom Kyle said were all between the ages of 6 and 10 and were adopted from Ethiopia. People who know the family confirmed that and said the husband is a lieutenant with the Denver Police Department who works the early shift.
Kyle said the woman and her children were all watching television in the same room when their house exploded.
Ryan helped carry the children back to the Alberts’ house, while Kyle helped guide the woman, who was in a state of disbelief and shock, out of the rubble, making sure she didn’t step on nails.
“It was horrifying,” Kyle said.
According to the teens, the woman and her four children were alert and talking when paramedics took them to the hospital. Officials said injuries to the five were not life-threatening.
Two additional houses were damaged in the explosion and are uninhabitable, officials said.
Everyone on the block, about 20 people, were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure.
Authorities told neighbors that residents of homes that were not damaged should be allowed back sometime this morning. There was no timetable for residents of homes that were damaged.
Pete Galligan, a neighbor who lives about a mile away, said he felt his home shake when the house exploded, but his house was not evacuated.