A home has exploded and caught fire in Hopkins. WCCO's Susie Jones reports that the couple that lived in the home died in the explosion and fire.
The home, on the 200 block of of 21st Ave in Hopkins, exploded around 10:30am on Wednesday morning. Hopkins Fire Chief Dale Specken confirms the two fatalities which were found in two different areas of the house. Family members are on site and being helped by chaplains.
It's still unclear what caused explosion according to Specken.
Scott Waryan is a neighbor and heard the explosion which he said sounded like thunder. Waryan grew up in the area and said the couple was probably in their nineties.
“We all went outside to see what was going on,” Waryan said. “And then we saw the smoke coming up from the neighbor’s house. And within a good three or four minutes, the flames were 20 feet above the roof line. We called 911, police were here within a few minutes. They were running around the outside of the house, ‘anybody in there, I can’t get in, we’re trying to get in, can you hear me’. It was gut-wrenching.”
Waryan said that he talked to a client of his on Main Street in downtown Hopkins, around a mile away from the house. They told Waryan it sounded like someone was stomping on their roof.
WCCO Radio's Susie Jones spoke to another man who was near the home when the explosion happened.
"I heard the explosion. I felt the explosion. It was unlike a sound I had ever heard before. So I came out of the house, started jogging down the street. I just saw a cloud of debris, smoke, papers, whatever, just kind of flying in the air. So I assumed that it was an explosion. And then I called 911 and reported it."
