Multiple injuries, homes destroyed in east Ottawa gas leak explosion

Several homes were destroyed and two people were pulled alive from the rubble in east Ottawa Monday morning after a gas leak triggered an explosion.

Residents started calling 911 at about 6:18 a.m. to report the blast, according to fire, police and paramedic officials at a news conference Monday morning.

Ottawa firefighters said a gas leak caused an explosion that affected four homes under construction on Blossom Pass Terrace. Homes with people living in them are nearby.

WATCH | Some of the first videos from the scene:

Paramedics had said two people were unaccounted for and believed to be in the rubble, and that emergency crews were looking for them.

At the news conference, officials said the first person had been pulled alive from the rubble at 7:19 a.m. The second was rescued just prior to the news conference getting underway after 9:30 a.m., officials said.

One was trapped under a pile of debris and firefighters needed to use chainsaws to get to them, according to fire spokesperson Nicholas DeFazio in an afternoon update. He said the other was rescued from a collapsed home.

The two people pulled from the rubble were taken to hospital in serious but stable condition.

Two other adults and two children were taken to hospital with minor injuries, paramedics said around 10:30 a.m.

Five residents were also treated on site for minor injuries and released.

Everyone is accounted for, Defazio said around 1:30 p.m.

Among the groups investigating, he named Ottawa police and firefighters, Ontario's fire marshal and Ministry of Labour, and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority.

A spokesperson for the authority said in an email to CBC that the organization has both an investigator and inspector on site Monday and will work with other officials to establish whether "any non-compliance with the fuels safety regulations" contributed to the incident.

As of around 4 p.m., the Office of the Fire Marshal had arrived on scene and was preparing to begin an investigation with a team of six, including a drone operator, engineers and fire investigators. The purpose of the investigation is "to determine the cause, origin, and circumstances of the explosion," the office told CBC in an email.

Tenth Line Road remains closed between Décoeur Drive and Wall Road, which is south of Brian Coburn Drive.

The scene is a Minto-developed community about 20 kilometres east of Ottawa's core. The Ministry of Labour said Minto Construction was building the homes at the scene.

Minto said in an email it has opened model homes to keep people warm and is co-operating with the investigation.

Residents who need help can go to the Minto office at Tenth Line and Décoeur.

Gas was still leaking, firefighters announced at 7:10 a.m. Enbridge Gas told CBC in an email just before 11 a.m. it has shut off the natural gas supply to 27 homes in the area, some of them unoccupied.

The Salvation Army and Red Cross are also helping, said Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts.

"Given the intensity of the blast it's a bit of a miracle that there weren't more serious injuries," she said.

Close to the scene, people reported shattered windows and other damage to their homes such as broken doors and cracked walls.

WATCH | Nearby residents describe what they felt:

"I was in a deep sleep and I heard a large explosion, so large it shook the ground … I thought that a car had hit the house," said Anthony Dinardo.

"[At first we thought] is it an earthquake, or a plane crashed, or some truck went into someone's house? What happened? It was a big bang, a big noise and it just shook everything," said Mayank Sharma, who lives about 250 metres away.

Someone tweeted to CBC Ottawa that the explosion shook their house about 15 kilometres away in the east end of Gatineau, Que.

Ottawa gas leak, explosion