Maryland house explosion kills two and damages nearby homes

Two people were killed and 12 families were displaced after a home in Maryland exploded Sunday amid reports of a possible gas leak, fire officials said.

Neighbors described feeling and hearing the early morning explosion that damaged a number of surrounding homes in Bel Air, a town about 50 kilometers northeast of Baltimore.

Firefighters were called to the area around 6:40 a.m. to reports of a gas leak and the smell of gas outside, said Oliver Alkire, a chief deputy with the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Alkire said as firefighters got closer, they started getting calls that the house had exploded. First responders said one person died at the scene, and a second body was later found in the rubble.

Alkire said a house near the blast was badly damaged, and a woman in that house was treated for injuries at the scene. Two utility workers were in the area to work on a reported electrical problem, but authorities did not immediately say if it was related to the explosion.

The first victim found was later identified as a BGE utility contractor, according to a statement released by Harford County Fire and EMS.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office said late Sunday that a second body had been found in the rubble of the house at the center of the explosion. The person is believed to be the 73-year-old homeowner, but positive identification was pending, according to the fire department statement.

Investigators were also working to determine how many homes were damaged and how far the blast radius was. Harford County firefighters said at least 12 families were displaced due to damage to neighboring homes. Authorities said there is no ongoing threat to the public.

“I’ve been on the job almost 18 years, and this is one of the biggest explosions I’ve seen,” Alkire said.

60 first answers

A photo posted by county officials showed several firefighters surrounding the rubble of the home with another damaged home in the background. Charred pieces of wood were piled up on the property, and insulation and wood chips spilled into the street. Small pieces of debris hung from nearby trees. Later in the morning, emergency workers were seen using heavy equipment to search through the rubble.

More than 60 first responders came to the scene from multiple agencies. State marshals, the sheriff and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted in the investigation, as is standard procedure.

Lisa Czawlytko, who lives in a nearby condominium, said the explosion woke her and her three children and knocked a pet bird to the ground.

She said the roof structure on four condominium buildings buckled and sent aluminum siding from the roof to the ground. She attended a news conference at a nearby library to ask officials if it was safe to be in the building.

She said she felt the force of the explosion.

“The whole building shook like a major earthquake,” she said in an interview.

Her 8-year-old daughter described it as scary when her mother asked her how she felt when it happened.

“I thought he dropped a bomb,” Myca said.

The explosion woke Greg Clifford from a deep sleep inside his home a block away. At first he thought a tree had fallen on the deck or that lightning had caused the loud noise.

“It just shook everything up,” Clifford said. “It was crazy cool.”

He also noticed some damage to his home.

“The window in my bedroom is removed from the frame of the house,” Clifford said. “I mean, I can look right at my deck. My basement door—the glass—didn’t break, but it exploded and the whole frame cracked.”

Photo: Crews remove debris after a house exploded in Bel Air, Md., Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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