House Explosion in Cleveland Leaves One Dead & One Injured

Cleveland police and fire arrived at the scene at 1073 E. 125th Street near Forest Grove before the East Cleveland departments and said four houses were on fire. Cleveland EMS also responded.  The East Cleveland Fire Department has confirmed one death (a woman) and one serious injury (a male) after a house exploded near East Cleveland.  Cleveland police said they were originally called for wires down at the location.  Residents in several homes near the explosion were evacuated, but East Cleveland fire officials could not provide an exact number of homes evacuated. In addition to the home that was leveled, two others were badly damaged.

“You could see her waving and all the neighbors started screaming and waving, ‘Somebody help her, somebody help her!'” said witness Nena Maria Fitzgerald about the woman who died.  Fitzgerald said police started to help the woman, then put a sheet over her.”I think they only found like half of her body at the time,” Fitzgerald said.

The injured male suffered multiple burn injuries.  Thankfully there were no firefighters were injured.  News 5’s crews on scene said there was a strong gas odor in the neighborhood when they got there. Dominion Gas said they were called around 12:55 p.m. regarding the explosion.  Dominion crews were sent to the scene and shut off the gas.  The company said it has  not heard about past gas leaks in the area.

A dog named Zeus in the house next door to the home that exploded survived the incident, but his home was destroyed, CBS affiliate WOIO-TV’s Victor Williams reports.

There was also another home explosion very close to this house that happened less than two months ago.   Thankfully in that explosion there were no deaths and only one injury.  Makes me wonder what is really going on in the area?  Is it deeper than a just a gas leak?