At least 2 people killed and 1 hurt in house explosion in Maryland

Two people were killed and one person was injured in an explosion at a house in Bel Air, Maryland, Sunday morning, officials said. The deceased were identified as Ray Corkran Jr., the home’s 73-year-old owner and Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado, a 35-year-old utility contractor already at the property to check out a report of a gas leak. Corkran Jr., was preparing that day to meet a real estate agent about putting the residence up for sale, said Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire. “He was preparing to actually list his home for sale today,” Alkire said of the 73-year-old. Corkran Jr., used a wheelchair, he said, and his body was found amid the post-explosion rubble at the site. Investigators will be at the property for as long as three weeks trying to determine an exact cause, with the origin of the gas leak being a focus of the probe, Alkire said. He said an electricity issue in the area was reported to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company on Saturday night, and BGE planned to send a crew in the morning to address the issue. Separately, a Harford County Public Works employee went to the area Sunday morning to mark the ground with spray paint above water and sewer lines in order to alert anyone working there to avoid digging there, said Joe Cluster, the county’s chief of executive staff. The worker’s assignment had nothing to do with reports of gas or electricity issues, which would be under the purview of the utility company, he said. Amid that task, the county worker smelled gas and made an initial report, Cluster said, by notifying BGE. The county worker left, and Baltimore Gas and Electric workers arrived, Alkire said. Baltimore Gas and Electric said in a statement that its contractors were “on site responding to an electric service matter at the time of the incident.” Hammer Utility Corp., which specializes in subterranean utility contracting, said in a statement that it employed Rodriguez-Alvarado. The dispatch time for the Harford County Fire and EMS Association after the 911 call about the gas leak was 6:42 a.m., Alkire said at an earlier news conference. As first responders approached the scene, they were told there had been a house explosion, he said. The timeline could be key to an investigation joined by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents and detectives with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Alkire said. County firefighters found a debris field when they arrived at the scene and called for additional help, said Harford County Fire spokesperson Jeffrey Sexton, who also spoke at the morning briefing. “I’ve been on the job for nearly 18 years; this is one of the largest explosions I’ve seen,” Alkire said. Around 60 personnel from multiple fire and emergency service agencies were on the scene to assist with the explosion, Sexton said. Authorities were still assessing damage, with multiple structures expected to have been affected, including the residence next door, home of the injured neighbor, Alkire said. While there is no current threat to the public from the explosion, Alkire asked the public to stay away from “the vast debris area that’s around the scene” and not fly any personal drones in its airspace. “Deputy State Fire Marshals and ATF agents have concluded their on-scene investigation and turned the scene over to the insurance representatives,” the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s office said in an update on Facebook Monday. “While the explosion remains under investigation, there is no evidence of criminal activity, and they will continue to focus on accidental causes,” the Fire Marshal’s office said. “We are about 0.3 miles from where the blast happened, and I thought it was a major earthquake.” “I thought it was a bomb,” her daughter said. “I’m actually nervous about — I mean, that could very well happen to one of our homes as well,” she said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/maryland-house-explosion-one-killed-rcna166130