Yesterday afternoon, an explosion completely leveled a house in South Amboy, NJ. The rental home's two tenants, 49-year-old Richard Pezzano and 33-year-old Marie Scott, suffered burns to 80% of their bodies. An investigation is continuing, but WPIX reports, "Witnesses say the house imploded into a mushroom cloud of smoke.."
South Amboy Fire Chief Larry Martin told the Star-Ledger, "The victims are lucky to be alive." Apparently PSE&G received a complaint about a possible gas leak in the neighborhood, but a spokesman said, "We checked the front of that house. We checked the front of the curb line and the foundation and there was no evidence of natural gas in the ground or coming out of our facilities."
One neighbor told WCBS 2, "It was insane. I thought a plane crashed. It's a miracle. If you see the debris it's incredible. It looks like a house from Hurricane Katrina. It looks like it was hit by a hurricane." WPIX has many photographs of the damage—the house is completely destroyed but the neighboring ones are fine.
