‘Major explosion’ rocks Regina’s North Central neighbourhood

Every day, Nelson Mantee takes his dog for a walk past a house at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Retallack Street.

Luckily for Mantee and his canine companion, they weren’t at that spot Sunday at around 11 a.m., when the two-storey house exploded.

“I was just leaving my house; I live down the block,” Mantee said. “I was taking my dog for a walk and all of a sudden, boom!

“The whole house shook and it knocked out everything (like the) power (and) knocked everything off the walls. It just stunned me and stunned my dog and my pets.”

The explosion could be heard across the city. Social media posts from people in areas around Regina suggested many also felt the ground shake due to the force of the explosion.

Mantee certainly heard it and felt it.

“I thought my neighbours got blown up — or even my house,” he said. “I raced to my basement and looked. I was really scared.”

Ray Wood, who lives a few blocks away on Montague Street, said he knew there had been an explosion somewhere in the city.

“We heard the bang and we wondered what it was,” he said. “All the neighbours were out, looking around. It shook stuff off the shelves in some of the houses.”

The explosion left a two-storey-tall pile of shingles, drywall and wood, with insulation strewn across the road. Pieces of lumber could be seen stuck in trees half a block away and some homes in the area sustained broken windows and other damage.

“I’m surprised there isn’t more damage (with) the way that place looks,” Wood said as he surveyed the house that had exploded.

Mohammed Islam, who just last month moved into a house one block west of the one that was destroyed, showed reporters who visited his home a broken window and a busted door frame.

Islam said he called 911 after the explosion but no one answered.

“They called back (soon after) and told me, ‘Go out. (Don’t) stay at home because there was some big explosion in your area,’ ” he said.

Islam said he left his home briefly before being allowed back in. He said police told him it was a gas explosion, but that hasn’t been confirmed by SaskEnergy or any other officials.

Dustin McCullough, the deputy chief of Regina Fire and Protective Services, told reporters the cause of the blast isn’t known, but he confirmed most of the home’s utilities were still operating.

Barricades were to be erected as the probe continued.

“This investigation will be ongoing, I would think, for the better part of the week this week,” McCullough said.

The deputy chief said one person was treated at the scene for minor injuries. The building’s owners told investigators the house was vacant and there weren’t supposed to be any occupants, but McCullough said a search would begin once conditions were safe.

“We’ve got a crew on scene right now,” he said. “We’re working to secure and make the structure safe so that we can complete searches of that building that was involved in the explosion.”

An apartment building to the south of the house also sustained significant damage, but McCullough said all of that building’s occupants had been accounted for.

He noted that houses in the area had been evacuated after the explosion, with some residents being put on a city bus to keep them warm. Others were allowed to shelter in place.

“Right now, we’re confident that the area is safe,” McCullough said, “and people have been returning to their homes.”

— With files and photos from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick