The Calgary Fire Department says investigators have determined that natural gas was the cause of a powerful explosion and fire at a town house complex in the SE Calgary neighbourhood of Mahogany on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
One townhouse was completely destroyed and several others were damaged.
CFD spokesperson Carol Henke told Global News that investigators still haven’t determined the source of the gas.
However, Henke said “natural gas somehow made its way into the end unit (of the townhouse complex) and when the furnace kicked in, that was the ignition source that caused the explosion and ruptured the gas line.”
The day following the explosion, ATCO, the company that owns the natural gas infrastructure in the area, confirmed in a statement to Global News that it had crews in the area at the time of the explosion who were responding to reports a third-party contractor had struck a gas line “during residential construction work.”
“The line that was hit was in the immediate vicinity of the explosion,” the statement said, adding the company had “started receiving calls from residents about the smell of natural gas in the area and had crews responding to those calls as well.”
Several residents who live in the area told Global News they smelled gas not long before the explosion took place, scattering debris over a wide area.
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CFD battalion chief Scott Cowan, who spoke with Global News at the scene of the fire, said that when fire crews arrived, they discovered “a collapsed structure and a large fire burning with debris thrown quite some distance across the street that appeared consistent with an explosion.”
Four people were injured in the blast and fire — two firefighters and two civilians — including one who was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
