Saskatoon residents in the Pacific Heights neighbourhood felt the ground shake Thursday night as a house exploded on Diefenbaker Drive.
“We couldn’t tell if it was coming from underneath us, above us, beside us,” Pacific Heights resident Danielle Young said. “It just, it felt like something under the ground exploded and we couldn’t tell how close it was to us.”
Several people who lived nearby told Global News they felt the explosion erupt as a house in the 3500 block of Diefenbaker Drive burst into flames around 8:30 p.m.
Young lives across the street and captured some photos of the smoke.
“We started seeing smoke coming out of a backyard across the street, black smoke,” Young said. “It turned into full blown flames coming out of the roof quite quickly.”
Saskatoon Fire confirmed the explosion, rushing to put out the flames in the evening and then returning to the house later around 4 a.m.
“On arrival we had heavy fire coming out of the back of the house,” Deputy Chief Rob Hogan said. “The crews began an aggressive exterior attack, they also made sure all of the occupants were out of the house.”,
The home was completely lost but Hogan said all nine occupants escaped safely.
Saskatoon Fire is still looking into the cause of the explosion.