Car explosion in Totowa, N.J. sends debris flying into homes, across street
A car explosion shook up a neighborhood in Totowa, N.J. Monday morning.
The driver, 28, managed to walk right out of the vehicle and into his home. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution. His condition was unknown. His name has not been released.
Video from Chopper 2 shows the destroyed car and debris scattered across the road. The fence next to the car was also damaged from the impact.
It happened in a gated community just after 5:30 a.m. The sound of the blast was caught on a Ring camera nearby.
"A resident entered his vehicle, turning the ignition on, and the car exploded," Mayor John Coiro said.
"While we were sleeping, we heard a huge explosion. A bang. We first didn't realize what it was; we thought it was maybe a car accident or something. When we looked outside the window, we saw there was a car that was totally demolished," said resident Sheldon Blaine.
"I am, like, a heavy sleeper, and my mom literally woke me up and said a car exploded in our neighborhood," are resident Tasneem Tatar said.
Blaine said fragments from the car landed everywhere after the explosion, including at his home in the Hickory Hill complex.
"In our own personal property all the windows facing the explosion have been blown away. The door was blown off the, the lock part was blown in," Blaine said.
His family wasn't hurt.
"Our neighbor across the street's wife came out and said 'oh my husband was in the car, he just came home, and he's hurt," Blaine said. "It blew pieces of the car across the other part of the street, over someone's house, into their back yard and into the clubhouse and into the pool."
Coiro said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and bomb squad determined it was not a bomb that caused the explosion. Coiro said that, preliminarily, it is believed a gas cylinder in the trunk may have closed the explosion.
"He is a plumber, and he had a tank of acetylene in his trunk, so preliminarily, we're not sure if that's what caused the explosion," Coiro said.
Acetylene is used in welding and cutting.
"I was like, how did the guy get out of the car and survive?" Tatar said.
The Passaic County Sheriff's Department and prosecutor's office are both investigating.
A similar incident happened in 2024 in Queens when a parked car blew up. The explosion was attributed to pressurized cylinders inside the vehicle. The car owner said it was used to transport tools and equipment for his family's plumbing business.
