Monterey Park residents are still in disbelief after a house explosion rocked the northeast Calgary community Saturday night, leaving six people injured and several townhomes uninhabitable.
“Boom. Boom,” recounted nearby resident Vanshika Taneja on Sunday in front of the destroyed homes. “Our house shook and all of the other houses, we all felt it. It felt like an earthquake.”
Calgary Fire Department public information officer Carol Henke said the crews responded to reports of an explosion and house fire at the Las Americas Villas around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
Upon arrival, crews immediately called a second alarm due to the magnitude of the fire. Six people were transported to hospital: one in life-threatening condition, one in serious condition and four in stable condition. A cat was also rescued by firefighters.
Firefighters continued to put out hot spots Sunday morning as crews were at the scene investigating the cause of the explosion.
“This type of occurrence is incredibly rare,” Henke said when asked how common these types of fires are. “We don’t see this very often at all and it doesn’t look like it had anything to do with natural gas at this point.”
Residents were still shaken up on Sunday as they surveyed the damage and recounted what they saw and heard.
Lyla Boyden told Global News her husband heard the explosion.
“It’s awful. It was terrifying last night seeing the chaos … This is devastating for all the families involved. That was upsetting actually, seeing people put on stretchers, seeing people bleeding. There was glass that was probably 100 feet away from the units.”
Gemmaricka Velasco lives across the street. She said the explosion was terrifying for her and her daughter.
“We are really so scared, so scared.”
Babar Kahn, who lives just of a couple houses away, said the explosion woke him up – his own house shook.
“We came out and we saw big flames. The middle house was in big flames and then within minutes the other two houses caught fire.”
The cause remains under investigation.
– with files from Global News’ Craig Momney