'Falling Out Of The Air': Survivor Recalls Disastrous Home Explosion
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4)- Fire investigators believe ice falling from a home's roof may have ruptured a gas line causing a house to explode. Two people were injured when the home exploded overnight in Summit County.
Explosion levels a rental home in Breckenridge, we are on the scene touring the damage now. https://cbsloc.al/2WLa55x
Posted by CBS Denver on Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Calls for help came in at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. When crews arrived they found the home leveled by an explosion and fire.
"To see your stuff up in the trees... what does that (mean to you)?" CBS4's Matt Kroschel asked Anthony Arsenault, who was inside the home during the explosion.
"It's crazy. I'm glad I didn't get tossed up into the trees," Arsenault replied. "Went to bed... next thing I know, I'm waking up mid-explosion, and yeah, falling out of the air.
He suffered a broken arm, cut and bruises.
"I had all my hair singed and eyebrows and eyelashes," he said.
Debris had smashed into two nearby homes, leaving not much left where the home once stood.
Two people had been "blown out" of the structure.
Red White and Blue Fire officials say both male victims were injured but remarkably survived the blast.
"One of the people who was in the house that had the least injuries told my battalion chief when he woke up, he was actually in the air and he was coming down," said Red White and Blue Fire Chief Jim Keating.
Preliminary investigation shows the gas meter was struck by a snow or ice slide. Xcel Energy crews are at the scene conducting an investigation.
Firefighters across Colorado's high country have been urging residents to clear snow and ice away from gas meters in what has been a dangerous avalanche season with so much snowfall late in the season. Crews have responded to several similar ice slide offs that have been breaking gas meters, creating dangerous conditions.