-By Bob Wade; Milwaukee DAT night team Team Leader/Supervisor ARC of SE Wisconsin….Milwaukee, WI USA.

A gas leak caused a major explosion to a townhome early this morning on the northside of Milwaukee.

When I arrived at the scene, what was left to the home was on fire.

As I approached the scene, I noticed fluffy white insulation all over the place.  One of the front doors to the home was blown completely across the street and into the yard…

A large piece from the front of the house was lying on the opposite side of the street in front of it…

An army of firefighters worked to put out the blaze…

As the smoke cleared and the sun came up, the sight of what had occurred there was tremendous.

What was once a beautiful home…

…was now reduced to rubble…

Insulation, vinyl siding, and children’s toys hung from the surrounding trees…

Homes all up and down the block had their windows blown in, doors almost ripped off of their hinges.  People from 4 blocks away stated that pictures fell off of their walls.To the north of the blast, the front window to the home next door was ripped out of the home by the concussion with its frame intact.

There were four people in the townhome when it exploded.  I saw two of them, a woman and an 8-yr old boy, being loaded into med units as I arrived at the scene.  Two others were transported shortly thereafter.

After being released from the hospital, two of the occupants came back to the scene to see what was left to their home.  One man stated that he was asleep in his 2nd floor bedroom when the explosion occurred.  He said he ended up in the front yard in the snow.  He got himself back on to his feet, dug through the remains of his home and rescued his wife.

“Thank God our three children weren’t here when this happened,” he said,

It’s a miracle that everyone made it out of this home alive!

Bob Wade
Milwaukee, WI
www.wisconsinwx.com

Filed under: Disaster Response