- A gas line explosion in Twinsburg Township destroyed three homes, damaged 36 others, and sent debris flying across the neighborhood.
It started with the smell of gas. A crew installing fiber-optic cable on Hiram Lane had hit a buried gas line, and around 3:20 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, someone called 911. Crews got there fast. Then, within about two minutes of their arrival and before anyone could shut the gas off, it ignited. A house blew up. The explosion destroyed three homes in the Twinsburg Township neighborhood and damaged at least 36 more.
The fire didn’t stop at one house. It jumped to the two beside it, and all three were gone. Debris flew across the subdivision and turned up two streets away. Siding, glass, and even a mattress ended up in the trees. One man was reportedly blown out of his chair, got up, and walked outside. A 911 caller told a dispatcher it “sounded like a bomb went off.” Two people went to the hospital with minor injuries, and both have since been released. Nobody was killed.
A couple of lucky breaks kept the toll down. The family in the home where the explosion started was away on vacation, so the place was empty when it went up. Chief Earl Wilson of the Twinsburg Fire Department called it “a miracle in itself,” given how many homes stood in the blast radius. Not everyone walked away unscathed, though. Plenty of residents still can’t go home, and the Red Cross says it’s helping around 11 people…