Norwich, VT- Authorities think a propane leak may be to blame for a house explosion in the Upper Valley.
“The amount of devastation is massive. Some people have trouble even comprehending what happened here it could do this,” said Tim Austin, a private investigator that accessed the damage from Monday’s explosion.
The explosion on New Boston Road in Norwich shocked residents that heard the loud blast from miles away. “I got a text message from a friend. Did you lose any windows last night,” said Stew Yaguda, a Norwich resident.
“It was just one quick really intense shake,” said Rebecca Yaguda. “I was driving on 89 and my mom called me really worried, because she said she felt the house shake and then heard a huge bang.”
Debris including roof shingles and the remains of a garage are the only things left of the 1800 square foot, two-bedroom home. Investigators say they are not ruling anything out to determine what happened on this Memorial Day explosion.
“Anything is in the air right now. Until we know what happened, we don’t know what happened,” Austin said.
Investigators are focusing their investigation on a propane line on the property that was potentially leaking and say its rare that people go unharmed in cases like this. “We are absolutely very lucky that no body was — there were two vehicles hit with debris — fantastic that no body got hurt because the potential was here.”
Experts say, this is one of the worst home explosions in Vermont’s history. “I’ve never seen one to this extent, in all the years I’ve been doing this,” Austin said.