Startling Home Explosion Caught On Tape In Missouri, Several Houses Damaged

An O'Fallon home burst into flames, damaging several surrounding houses in the neighborhood, and it was all caught on camera.

According to FOX 2, the City of O'Fallon says a contractor hit a gas line on Tuesday morning (March 2), causing a home to explode.

Luckily, no one was injured in the incident.

The city posted a statement about the company involved with striking the gas line.

"Today's situation follows another gas line that was struck last week. One company has been involved in both of these events. After today's incident, the company voluntarily stopped all work in the city. The city has accepted this voluntary termination and has suspended all permits related to work by this company."

Rachel Owens, a neighborhood resident, said she and her dad, Ken Stout, were not home, but her sister was. She noted that her sister smelt the gas and ran outside before the explosion.

"The explosion opened the dishwasher. It opened the microwave. It threw everything from the cabinets," Owens told the news outlet.

The O'Fallon Assistant Fire Chief Andy Parish said the department was called out after the gas line was hit. He also noted that situations like this happen often, but they don't have the severe impact that this incident did.

"This is kind of shocking; I mean to have a crew on the scene and to have this happen. I'm thankful for their safety, as well as the residents that they were able to get out and not have anything happen," Parish stated. 

Owens said nearly every room in her home was damaged, including most of the windows and the outside of the house.

"We built this house from the ground up, and just to see it could be taken down so easily is hard," Owens noted. "To know it just could've been gone like that the way their house was, that's crazy."

Stout, who was thankfully not home, said he was grateful his family and neighbors are okay. "My neighbor, he lost everything. Everything that he's ever owned — heirlooms, his wedding rings, pictures — nothings left," Stout stated. "That's a rude awakening to anybody on how deadly that stuff is. You're living in a time bomb."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the owners of the home that was destroyed in the explosion.

If you want to see the GoFundMe page, you can find the donation page here.