Deadly Vineland fire

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(Updated)

Two people are dead, and two police officers injured, after two explosions and a fire at a home in Vineland.

It happened after Niagara Regional Police were called out to a domestic dispute at 8:30 last night. A neighbour told CHCH News that one resident inside the home was on the lawn yelling “He lit it! He lit it! Get back!”

The force of the blast threw a police officer back, ripping his uniform. Other police rushed him into an ambulance; he has since been airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital.

Eugene Schmidt lived in the house with his disabled wife, Anne, and his son Karl. Neighbours say they have seen Eugene, but they have not seen Anne and Karl.

Frank Peronne lives across the street and picks up the story. “Someone in a uniform was thrown back from in front of the house and landed almost in front of the, beside the ambulance. Then I heard the police, everybody rushing all four of them were, six officers grabbed someone and put him in the ambulance and the ambulance just took off.”

“The next thing I knew was the other officers said ‘move your car to this end’, and the other car moved to that end, and all you could hear was sirens everywhere and waiting for the fire trucks to come. Because there was fire in the window. I could see it and the smoke was up maybe a hundred feet. You can see the smoke.”

“But all you can hear was the old man outside saying ‘he turned it on’, ‘he turned it on’. Or ‘he turned it off’, something like that, screaming ‘everybody get out, get out, get out’. There was chaos.”

The officer thrown back by the blast is reportedly not doing well. The other injured officer received minor injuries.

Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit is probing the case.