By Iliya Kure, LOS ANGELES
Authorities in the U.S. Wednesday declared three persons dead in Evansville city, in southern part of Indiana state as a result of house explosion that occurred around 1 p.m. local time.
A total of 39 houses were damaged by the explosion, 11 of them becoming uninhabitable.
AP has quoted Head of Evansville Fire Department, Mike Connelly saying, “Debris is strewn over a 100-foot (30-meter) radius,” including “typical construction materials” such as wooden boards, window glass and insulation.
In a twitter post, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, shared photos showing destroyed buildings, saying, “our first responders and city departments will continue to keep residents in the Willemette Village/Wesselman Park neighborhoods safe and informed.”
A CNN affiliate WFIE quoted the Mayor saying, “I’d seen photos that have been placed online, but once I walked up to the residence itself and saw the devastation with my own eyes, it was, I mean, it was a gut punch.
“Across the street from the explosion you’ll see house after house that has windows blown out, that has you know there’s insulation blown out from homes.”
The local gas utility company, CenterPoint Energy, in a statement said it last worked in the home in January 2018.
“CenterPoint Energy is working closely with the Evansville Fire Department, State Fire Marshal and other agencies as the investigation of this incident continues,” the utility said.
An office manager at Award World Trophies Jacki Baumgart, whose office is about two and a half blocks from the site of the explosion, said when they heard the explosion, “everybody here immediately ran out of the building. We thought the building was going to come down.”
The house explosion incidence was the second in the area in about five years.
