Smell of gas in the air before Mahogany townhouse explosion: Neighbours

It sounded similar a weaponry going off.

That’s however Keri Vandongen, who lives crossed the street, described what she heard erstwhile a townhouse connected Mahogany Drive S.E. successful Calgary exploded and burst into flames soon aft 3 p.m connected Thursday (Nov. 21, 2024).

Vandongen said she was retired for a locomotion with her dogs astir 2:45 p.m. erstwhile she bumped into a person who asked her, “do you odor gas?”

A abbreviated clip later, Vandongen said she heard the detonation and saw the townhouse connected fire.

“The detonation came toward our location and determination was debris each implicit our yard,” Vandongen said.

Luckily, determination was cipher surviving successful the townhouse astatine the time.

The time aft the explosion, ATCO confirmed successful a connection to Global News that it had crews successful the country astatine the clip of the detonation — responding to reports a third-party contractor had struck a state enactment “during residential operation work.”

“The enactment that was deed was successful the contiguous vicinity of the explosion,” the connection said, adding the institution had “started receiving calls from residents astir the odor of earthy state successful the country and had crews responding to those calls arsenic well.”

The Calgary Fire Department said it received aggregate 911 calls astir 3:10 p.m. connected Thursday.

CFD battalion main Scott Cowan said, erstwhile occurrence crews arrived astatine the townhouse analyzable successful Mahogany, they discovered “a collapsed operation and a ample occurrence burning with debris thrown rather immoderate region crossed the street,” that appeared accordant with an explosion.

Another neighbour, Manjula Patel, told Global News she besides smelled “very atrocious gas” Thursday day and a abbreviated clip aboriginal she heard “a large blast and my location was shaking.”

“It was scary,” Patel said, adding she looked retired her window, saw the fire, and “called 911 close away.”

While neighbours are thankful determination weren’t immoderate superior injuries and much homes weren’t destroyed, they’re present asking wherefore ATCO didn’t pass them of the imaginable state leak earlier the detonation happened.

CFD confirmed 4 radical were injured successful the blast and occurrence — 2 firefighters and 2 civilians — including 1 who was taken to infirmary with insignificant injuries.

ATCO said 1 of those radical was a institution worker who suffered insignificant injuries.

The connection said ATCO is moving with investigators, who were backmost connected country Friday, cleaning up debris from the neighbourhood and sifting done the charred remains of the home.

CFD is besides asking anyone with photos oregon videos of the incidental anterior to the accomplishment of occurrence crews to email them to piofire@calgary.ca.