‘Major explosion’ wipes out Regina home, only minor injuries reported: firefighters

Minor injuries followed a reported explosion at a now-ruined home in Regina’s North Central neighborhood on Sunday.

The Regina Fire Department posted on Twitter that emergency services are responding to a “major explosion” at the corner of 6th Avenue and Retallack Street.

Documents show that the building was owned by the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation.

The Regina Police Department told CBC the explosion was reported to them at 10:48 a.m. CST. Emergency services have not confirmed the cause of the explosion.

The fire department posted on Twitter saying the blast caused “extensive damage to multiple structures” but only minor injuries were reported.

Unaffected residents were allowed to return home after being told to leave earlier in the day, and traffic closures were still in place as of 6:00 a.m. CST Sunday as fire investigators combed the scene of the explosion .

Derrek Rackel, who lives a few houses from the damaged building, said the blast wave was so intense it knocked plants off his shelves and even broke a window outside his home. He estimated the blast occurred about 30 yards from his back fence.

He and his family were sitting in the living room when suddenly he felt an extraordinary shock wave.

“I thought the water heater had exploded… in the basement. I saw everything lift off the ground for a second; the windows were shaking; there was a flash of bright light,” he said. he says, also comparing it to a truck. slam on the side of the house.

A plant on the windowsill darted about a foot to a nearby shelf, Rackel said.

“I felt the shock wave rise from the ground all the way through my body; I can still feel it in my back, in my spine. My neck and everything is tense, I feel like I have had a car accident,” he said. .

“None of us have ever experienced anything like this. It was so dramatic and it ended so quickly.”

Rackel said after the blast a firefighter showed up at the door and said he was advising everyone in the neighborhood to evacuate their homes until they could handle a gas leak. .

To Rackel’s knowledge, the building unit, which appeared to be a multiplex of several residences, was uninhabited.

Lillian Quewezance said the loud blast scared her and other people in her home, which she estimates is about three houses away from the building that exploded.

She said her granddaughter was crying and people were confused about what happened.

“When it happened, I heard things crashing on the ground,” Quewezance said. “My mirror almost hit my granddaughter.”

Quewezance said he saw smoke rising from the back of the building after the explosion.

SaskPower reported an outage in the area following the explosion, but power has since been restored.