STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A natural gas explosion leveled a house and injured five workers who were trying to contain a gas main break Tuesday in a neighborhood near the New Jersey shore.
Video from WPVI-TV showed smoke billowing from the explosion site and piles of debris in the road next to where the house once stood in Stafford Township. The windows of a home across the street were shattered by the force of the blast.
Five New Jersey Natural Gas workers were hospitalized after the explosion, spokesman Michael Kinney said, but their conditions weren’t immediately known. Mayor John Spodofora said one of the injured is in extremely critical condition and was given CPR at the scene.
About 75 to 100 homes have been evacuated, and Kinney said utility workers were trying to shut off the gas main and identify the source of the continuing leak.
“We are working to make the situation safe right now,” he said.
Police advised residents earlier Tuesday that a gas main had broken in the area, and Kinney said the workers were at the scene trying to fix the problem when the house exploded.
“My windows blew out of my house, and I dropped and I covered my daughter because she was next to me,” neighbor Melissa Lewis told WCAU-TV. “I stood up and I heard them screaming outside and there were people being taken to the ambulance.”
Police said no schools are near the affected area and that they operating normally.
“We are right now keeping everyone out of the area,” Spodofora said. “The gas company wants to get that main gas line shut off.”
The explosion comes almost a year after a fatal gas explosion in Ewing that destroyed at least 10 houses, killed one woman and injured seven people in March 2014.
