Fire official says it’s ‘too early’ to speculate on cause of Wednesday’s house explosion
Posted Aug 23, 2018 05:16:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Kitchener fire officials hope to have their investigation into a fatal house explosion wrapped up by the weekend.
Kitchener's Deputy Fire Chief, Rob Martin also says it's too early to speculate on cause.
“This is a systematic, forensic dismantling of the scene, so it takes a lot of time to go through this process.” Martin told a media briefing on Thursday afternoon.
A woman was killed in the explosion on Sprucedale Crescent, and a man is in a Hamilton hospital with critical injuries.
The blast was heard by people who live kilometres away.
Martin says ground and infrastructure testing has been completed, adding no natural gas leaks were found.
“There will be heavy equipment moving in this afternoon … to assist in the slow dismantling, then the reconstruction piece.” he explained.
He says they want to get residents back in their homes.
Martin anticipates they will be able to open up the south side of Sprucedale by 6 p.m.
On Wednesday afternoon, fire officials said up 16 houses would need to be evacuated for up to three days.
