Oakville home explodes after gas leak

A fiery explosion at a home in Oakville this afternoon. It happened just before five o’clock — and destroyed much of the home.

So far we know that workers were renovating this home on Sandlewood Road when they hit a gas line. The explosion blew the back of the house into the back yard — and the roof caved in. The fire was then being fueled by the natural gas. Union Gas arrived and shut off the gas after initially having trouble finding the shutoff to the home. Oakville fire has the blaze under control. Luckily there are no injuries to report. Gas was shut off to about 60 residences for a time. Oakville’s deputy fire chief George Birtig describes the damage: “It seems to be confined to the back yard. It appears when the wall blew straight out, the roof went straight down. So right now, there is a bit of damage to the shed on the one side and none on the other side. So it is pretty limited as far as debris field goes.”

While the homeowners were living in the home, they weren’t home at the time. The contractors were there when emergency crews arrived.

And in Burlington tonight, fire fighters were called to the Burlington Mall just after ten o’clock for reports of smoke seen coming from the roof of The Bay department store. Crews went up to the roof to check it out and didn’t find a fire. But they say there was an issue in the H-vac system that was being worked on earlier in the day. No one was injured — and there’s no word on any damages at this point.