1 dead, 2 injured in house explosion in Wonder Lake, Illinois
One person is dead, and two others were hospitalized, in a home explosion in Wonder Lake, Illinois, far northwest of Chicago Sunday night.
At 7:50 p.m. Sunday, the Wonder Lake Fire Protection District was called for a house explosion in the 7400 block of Birch Drive, near Wonder Lake Road.
A box alarm was called to bring extra crews and EMS to the scene through a mutual aid response.
One person died at the scene, the fire protection district said. This person's identity has not been released.
Two others were injured, the McHenry County Sheriff's Department said. A 76-year-old man and a 28-year-old man were both taken to Loyola University Medical Center with serious injuries, according to the sheriff.
Neighbors said they heard a large boom, and when they went outside, they saw smoke billowing from the home.
"I thought a transformer exploded, until my grandma went to talk to our neighbors, and they were like, 'Yeah, a house exploded,'" said neighbor Gillian Bass. "I'm like, 'Really?' I'm like, I had no idea a house exploded, and I thought that it was, again, a transformer or some kind of power line that exploded."
Dave Schultheis said he heard the massive boom before seeing smoke and debris flying through the area. He had no doubt that the noise he heard was something serious.
"About little after 7:30 last night, we were watching TV, and just a loud explosion — windows and everything. Just, we knew it was not fireworks. Jumped up off the couch, looked out the window, and you could see debris falling from the sky, boards, shingles, papers on fire," Schultheis said. "With that, we went out the front door. There was papers lit coming down out of the air on our deck, in our lawn, and a handful of documents from someone's mortgage that we have collected. So they're at our house if they need them."
Cyrena Sutherland encountered a horrific sight.
"I showed up, the house was in shambles," Sutherland said, "and I saw the son out there crying about his parents, so I went to give him a hug to comfort him, and I realized he was covered in burns himself."
One neighbor said she saw the boy's father physically crawling through the rubble to escape.
Crews were also seen assisting someone on a stretcher.
Schultheis said the situation was very sad.
"It's a shock to see how much damage and other people, the carnage that is created from it," he said.
Two nearby homes were also damaged in the explosion. An investigation by the Wonder Lake Fire Protection District and the McHenry County Coroner's Office is ongoing.
