‘Like a shockwave’: Explosion hospitalizes 3 people in downtown Prince George

Three people have been hospitalized after an explosion rocked downtown Prince George, B.C., on Tuesday morning, with one person with serious injuries.

According to RCMP, the blast took place around 7 a.m. in an abandoned building at 4th Avenue and Dominion Street. It “levelled” that building and shattered glass in adjacent buildings, Cpl. Jennifer Cooper told Global News.

She said it was “definitely” a possibility that someone else was in the building, she added, but with firefighters still working to extinguish the blaze, a search won’t be possible for some time.

1:40 Fiery aftermath of Prince George, B.C. explosion caught on video, several injured

The cause of the explosion is so far unknown, and police have closed the streets in a square block between 3rd Avenue and 5th Avenue on Dominion Street, all the way down to Queensway.

The debris is scattered over several blocks, Cooper said.

“This incident is dynamic and information is changing rapidly,” said Cooper had said in a Tuesday news release. “We are insisting that all members of the public stay out of the immediate area.”

Videos posted to Twitter showed flames and thick black smoke billowing from a building.

Resident Frances Gook said she was sitting at home when she heard a “really loud boom.”

“Like nothing I’ve ever heard before,” she said in an interview. “Apparently, it was heard around the city, so quite loud … the house actually felt like it shook. It was like a shockwave hit the house.”

She then saw a “black plume” rising from a location several kilometres from the house.

Cooper said “most of Prince George felt” the explosion and FortisBC is examining the possibility of natural gas having fuelled the fire. Motorists can expect the road closures to be “lengthy,” she added.

The RCMP is asking anyone with video footage of the explosion to contact the detachment’s non-emergency line at 250-561-3300.