At least 2 injured in second Westminster home explosion in as many days
Authorities on Wednesday were investigating an explosion at a townhouse in Westminster that injured at least two people.
The explosion occurred around 1:30 p.m. at Stratus Townhomes on Sheridan Boulevard. It’s unclear what caused the explosion, said Cheri Spottke, a spokeswoman for the Westminster Police Department.
Medics treated two people for minor injuries, authorities evacuated at least four buildings, and the Red Cross helped residents who were displaced by the blast.
“We believe everyone’s been accounted for,” Spottke said.
A day earlier, a blast leveled a home two miles away, in the 7700 block of Knox Court. Cadaver dogs detected human remains while searching through the rubble in that blast.
“Obviously, any home explosion is unusual. Yes, it’s strange to have two,” Spottke said. “But the weather is colder. We have people that are trying to heat (their home in) different ways and stuff like that. So, that will all be something that we look into.”
Johnnie Presley was sleeping when Wednesday’s explosion occurred. When he woke up, he said he heard a “whole crap ton of sirens going off.”
“I looked over and the building over there was on fire and I was in shock,” Presley said.
Helen Masango lives in a building on the other side of the complex. She went outside after seeing smoke from the explosion.
“It’s scary,” Masango said. “It makes me worry for all the other homes. Like what caused it? It’s really troubling to see something like this happen here.”
Cora Walters was taking out the trash when she heard the blast.
“I’ve seen fires before. I’ve been through fires and looked out my window and saw my whole front yard on fire. But this is different. It’s devastating because the family or families that may live in there just lost everything,” Walters said.
Jay Brown was evacuated from his building after the explosion.
“We were just sitting on the couch and all I hear is this boom,” Brown said. “I look outside and all of a sudden that side of the building just fell onto the cars and the windows started falling off.”
He added: “It’s kind of frustrating to have to worry about my house being blown up.”
In addition to the Westminster Fire Department, firefighters from the North Metro and Arvada fire departments responded to the explosion.
