‘The roof literally exploded off;’ People describe scene after townhouse explosion in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD — Smoke rose into the air over Home Road in Springfield after a townhouse exploded Saturday afternoon.

“Oh, man, you can start seeing the flames coming out of this now,” an IWitness 7 viewer said on scene.

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Springfield firefighters told News Center 7 they responded to the complex at the 1000 block of Home Road on reports of a natural gas leak at around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

But moments after they got there, the townhouse burst into flames.

News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson said three people were taken by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital and one of the victims is just two years-old.

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Neighbors said they watched as flames completely destroyed a townhome and hurt at least three people inside.

“They were literally kind of naked to the point where their clothes were melted on them,” said Ashley Hanshaw.

Robertson also spoke with Brian Miller, Springfield Fire Chief, who said one of them was only around two-years old.

“We were able to go in and rescue them, the one two-year old,” he said. “All three of those people were transported to two different hospitals.”

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Robertson said when neighbors heard the explosion, they jumped into action.

“A bunch of the people that were inside of the building were running out basically and there were other people from the building, all of these buildings in the back, trying to basically come and help other people,” said Hanshaw.

She was one of the neighbors who watched as the burned.

“As soon as I looked out, all of a sudden, like the back part of the building was nothing besides covered in flames,” Hanshaw told Robertson. “And then all of the sudden, the roof literally exploded off the top of it and the walls literally exploded off basically the back of it all at the same time.”

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Jason Messenger said he was on his way to meet with his aunt who lives in the complex when the explosion happened. When he pulled up, he noticed the flames were closed to her apartment.

“Her unit is at the end and it’s untouched,” he said. “So, she got lucky.”

As for the firefighters, Chief Miller said they are doing okay physically but not emotionally.

“It’s a traumatic day, right?” he told Robertson. “When we have to take young people to the hospital like that, our guys get affected by that too and it kind of tugs at your heart strings.”

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News Center 7 is still working to learn how those three people are doing.

Chief Miller said he thinks crews will need to demolish that townhouse.

We will continue to provide updates on this developing story.

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