Truro house explosion felt in neighboring towns; no one hurt
TRURO - A house explosion late Thursday night in Truro destroyed a home and damaged others with a blast that could be felt as far away as Brewster, fire officials said.
"It was just blown to pieces," said neighbor Cliff James, who lives near the Harding's Way home.
No one was home at the time and there were no injuries reported. Firefighters worked to keep a huge fire from spreading to other homes.
Video from the scene showed flames completely engulfing the home.
"Significant explosion. . . the house behind it, surrounding houses have lost windows," Truro Fire Chief Tim Collins said.
The blast was so severe items from the house were sent flying, landing miles away. Of them, a letter lay on the driveway of neighbor Bob Byrnes. The letter belongs to the Henning family, whose home is now gone.
"It was the house that we grew up in," said Anna Henning, who lived in the home with her parents, Miriam and Todd Henning.
"There was no cable, there was no streetlights, there was no paved road, there was just wilderness," said Henning.
Her parents still live on the property and were inside of their cottage house, just steps away from the main house, when it exploded.
"The windows of that house apparently were blown out.," said Henning. "They had to evacuate, they are staying with a neighbor and they are safe."
Neighbors were stunned by the sound of the explosion.
"The sound was so loud we, for a moment, thought that it could be our own house that's exploding," said Byrnes.
James compared the sound of the explosion to a bomb and when he stepped out of his home following the sound of sirens, all he saw was ash falling from the sky.
For Henning, though her family lost a lot, she's just grateful her parents are safe.
"It still feels very surreal but immediately following that thought of how, what, was just extreme gratitude that my parents are OK," she said.
Investigators are still working to determine what caused the fire and explosion.
Just one week ago, a house explosion in Berlin killed a 79-year-old woman and injured her daughter.
