A gas leak explosion has rocked an entire north Regina neighbourhood Sunday morning, blowing one home completely off its foundation.
The blast occurred at 16 Halleran Place at 11:38 a.m., a home on a cul-de sac near Thom Collegiate high school just south of the Ring Road and east of Pasqua Street.
“(We got a 911 call) talking a gas explosion,” said Fire Marshal Albert Headrick, adding there was no fire as a result of the explosion.
“I can tell you that there's a family of three — a mother, father and daughter — that were in the house at the time of the explosion.”
The family managed to escape the house. The daughter was taken away by ambulance. There's no word on her condition, but Headrick thinks she had an injured leg.
Headrick says the gas built up inside the home. He didn't know why or how, but said the family had been having troubles with their furnace, and the explosion happened when they started their dryer.
Halleran Place has been evacuated as were a number of homes on Donahue Avenue that backed-on to the home that exploded. Traffic on Donahue was blocked from Argyle Street North and Pasqua Street, but re-opened about an hour later.
Headrick says there was no physical damage to the exterior of any of the surrounding homes. He said it would be a number of hours before neighbours were going to be allowed back inside their homes.
The blast came as quite a shock to those neighbours.
“I was in bed sleeping and I heard this big bang and the house shook,” said Kristen Morin, who lives on that street. “I got up and I looked outside and the house two houses down from me, the windows were all (blown) out.”
Morin said some of the walls were caved in, as well.
