Chattanooga, TN – WDEF-TV, Allison Braxton – The urge for a cigarette leaves a local man homeless after his house explodes with him still inside.
The Chattanooga Gas Company and fire department sift through broken glass, wood and what’s left of this house, after an explosion rocked this neighborhood.
Janice McAfee – Neighbor “At first we thought it was a sonic boom.”
Peter Smith – Neighbor “You kind of wake up and look out your back window and there’s a tremendous orange glow over everything.”
The explosion happened around 3 a.m. at 612 Stonebrook Drive.
48-year old Clyde Davis told fire officials that he fell asleep on the couch.
He woke up around 2:30 am. and decided to have one last cigarette.
Davis claims when he lit the cigarette an explosion knocked him several feet.
He got out of the house and ran to neighbor Janice Macaffee.
Janice McAfee Neighbor “He obviously looked as if he had been burned he looked as if he had been burned his face and hands.”
Janice Macaffee says the fire was so intense that these embers flew two doors down to her house.
Janice McAffee Neigbor “It was mostly blowing toward that wooded area that’s behind out house and I thought what if that caught fire how would they get to it.”
Fire investigators say preliminary results show the explosion was caused by natural gas.
Bruce Garner Chattanooga Fire Department “But there’s still some details to work out we’re still trying to find out exactly what happened.”