A house blast in Oneonta, New York, over the weekend led to the death of one person.
The eruption occurred at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, damaging multiple buildings and causing a fire, the Oneonta Fire Department said in a Facebook post.
Before the explosion, officials from New York State Electric & Gas were on the scene responding to reports of the area smelling like gas, Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote on X.
There was a leak, the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office said Monday, caused accidentally by an unnamed resident. The gas then went up in flames, although the sheriff’s office did not say what sparked it.
“Like a shockwave, it pushed me forward into the garage and I was stunned and I kind of came out and I saw flames in the sky. I walked out to the street and I saw fire on the road and I thought a car had just exploded on the street,” town resident Mike Jacobs told WBNG-TV, Binghamton’s CBS affiliate.
After the fire was extinguished, a resident of one of the damaged homes was found dead. Another resident suffered minor injuries and received medical attention, the sheriff’s office said.
The blast was strong enough to be felt over a mile away.
“It shocked me. I’m not used to that. I’ve been in town government for coming up on 15 years, and we’ve never had anything quite like this,” Oneonta Supervisor Randal Mowers told Utica station WKTV.
A state of emergency was declared after the blast, with officials restricting people from entering buildings along a stretch of Richards Avenue.
Over 60 residents were affected by the explosion and fire, the sheriff’s office said.
By 7 p.m. Monday, gas and electricity had been restored to most residences, with the state of emergency and area restrictions remaining in place into Tuesday, town officials posted on Facebook.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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