November 5, 2002
Central
Utah Correspondent Sam Penrod reporting
A powerful
explosion rocked an Orem neighborhood this morning, destroying
a house and sending parents of school children into shock.
The house
exploded at 8:30 this morning, just minutes after elementary
students had arrived at their school across the street.
Investigators have spent the day trying to figure out what
caused the blast.
The
cause of the explosion is looking suspicious.
It turns out police came to the home last night because of
a domestic dispute. Investigators say so far they don't have
evidence of a crime, and tonight are trying to find out who
or what what could have blown up this house.
What
had started out as a quiet morning in this Orem neighborhood
abruptly ended with a giant explosion.
"I just pulled up to the stop sign on my way to work
and heard this huge boom, and it sounded like a big car wreck,"
says Laureen Walker, who witnessed the explosion.
The blast sent part of the house and furniture inside flying
through the air.
"I
saw the insulation go. It was a big cloud of snow and white
dust."
Firefighters say they did not see flames when they arrived
on the scene, and rescued a man who was inside the rubble.
"He was the only one inside the home. There was no one
outside the house that was hurt. It could have been bad had
this happened a half hour earlier when all the children were
on their way to school," says Lt. Doug Edwards with the
Orem Department of Public Safety.
Cascade Elementary is just across the street of the house.
Debris and glass was scattered over part of the playground,
but no children were outside when the house exploded.
"The kids did hear the boom. They didn't know what it
was as soon as I knew what was going on here, I made an announcement
to the kids that we had had an explosion, and a house had
fallen in, and that the police and firefighters were here
working on it," says Georgia Davis, Cascade Elementary
school principal.
Investigators used heavy machinery throughout the afternoon,
trying to find evidence of what could cause such a powerful
explosion.
The man
who was rescued from the house this morning has not been cooperative
with detectives. He's in custody now on a possible parole
violation.
For now, few answers to this bizarre explosion and the circumstances
surrounding it.
