CAMBY, Ind. – Plainfield fire investigators along with crews from Vectren Energy are trying to determine if a natural gas leak led to an explosion in Camby this morning.
The blast leveled and burned a two-story house in the Heartland Crossing community, but no one was injured.
“We will be working with Vectren for our fire investigation purposes as to the cause of the incident. It could take several days to determine exactly what the cause is here,” said Plainfield Fire Chief Joel Thackery as he stood in the middle of the 10000 block of Walnut Grove where the explosion was reported at about 10:40 a.m. “We have several witnesses who told us there were multiple explosions before they noticed that the home was on fire. There was a gas leak alongside the incident here but we cannot confirm that that is the cause of the incident at this time.”
Adam Frank left shortly after 10 a.m. only to return home within the hour and see his neighbor’s residence in rubble and his own house scorched and its vinyl siding melted.
“I had some cable workers knock on my door, unidentified, not sure what company they were working with,” said Frank, “but they knocked on my door and asked me to move my car, my car was on the left slot of my driveway, and they said they were going to be running some cable in the neighbor’s yard and they needed me to move my car.”
“I heard an explosion come from the back of the house. I got up and I looked because I felt it, it shook the house, so I got up and I looked and I saw the back left side of the house behind us on fire,” said Johnstone Greenhow who lives behind 10871 Walnut Creek. “I heard a hissing sound coming from I think the house right next to it and I figured maybe it was a gas leak so we kind of fell back away from the house and then that’s when the second explosion happened.”
Greenhow and another neighbor considered entering the burning house to search for possible victims of the blast but were driven back by flames.
“Once we were on the other side of the street that’s when the third and final explosion happened and the house kind of became engulfed in flames and kind of fell down.”
Greenhow described the same crew, two men and a teenager, who had knocked on Frank’s door earlier and said they drove away from the scene after the first explosion.
Chief Thackery said utility investigators will determine if anyone had permission to dig in the backyard of the house where the explosion occurred and if any gas lines had been compromised.
Within four hours of the blast, fire crews were demolishing the home as the residents dug through charred belongings.
Crews from several fire departments in Hendricks, Morgan and Marion counties responded to the explosion and blaze.
