An apparent gas explosion at a West Park home sent a family to the hospital and shook their neighborhood around them. NBC6’s Lorena Inclan and Niko Clemmons reports
A family of four including two children were hospitalized after an apparent gas explosion destroyed their home in West Park early Tuesday morning, officials said.
The explosion happened around 12:30 a.m. at a home in the 5200 block of Southwest 20th Street.
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Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue crews responded and found "extensive damage" to the home, Battalion Chief Michael Kane told reporters at a news conference later Tuesday morning.
"It's completely devastated," Kane said.
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Surveillance footage from nearby homes showed the house exploding and a ball of fire shooting into the air.
Kane said firefighters found smoke and debris scattered in the street and immediately began searching the scene for survivors.
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A family of four who were in the home were found and initially taken to Memorial Regional Hospital, but three of those members were then taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with burn injuries, broken bones and other trauma, Kane said. The injuries range from serious to critical.
Their identities haven't been released. Two neighbors were also hospitalized with injuries suffered in the blast.
Around 75 firefighters responded to the scene but Kane said the fire was put out by the explosion.
"It appears to be that there was a mushroom cloud, some fire was part of that mushroom cloud, which may have caused the burns of the patients but when the firefighters arrived several minutes after there was no fire," Kane said.
Aerial footage showed the house almost completely leveled, with debris up and down the block. Homes on either side also appeared to be heavily damaged. Neighbor Khadijah Orr grabbed her baby and jumped out the window.
"Half of the house is gone," she said.
Cell phone footage obtained by NBC6 also showed people screaming and rushing to help the victims, along with neighbors trying to help first responders locate victims.
It appears some type of gas issue caused the explosion, Kane said.
"The home was completely destroyed, it appeared to be by some type of gas," Kane said. "At this point we don't know the source of the explosion, we just know that the explosion was caused by some type of gas."
Cadaver dogs were used to search for more victims, but none were found, officials said.
“This seems to be an isolated incident,” Kane said in the press conference, "Others don’t need to be concerned about this happening again.”
Multiple homes and cars in the area were also damaged. A structural engineer will inspect the other homes in the area to make sure they're still livable, Kane said.
The area was expected to be closed off until Wednesday, Kane said.
One witness NBC6 spoke with at the scene described the chaos.
“I smelled like a tire, rubbery smoke. And then that was it. I didn’t see any fire or anything like that but I’m just guessing. It was like on the ground. It was a massive explosion," the witness said.
"It blew out the windows, just blew out the front window," neighbor Tony Dorsett said. "When I came out the front door I just saw glass everywhere, inside and outside."
The State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the explosion.
