NJ home explosion
© Kevin Shea/Advance Media
Two houses were badly damaged and two residents injured in an apparent explosion in Trenton Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

Residents reported hearing a "boom" sound and came outside to see the Wayne Avenue duplex collapsing and debris strewn in the street.

Two people were taken to a local hospital from the scene of the 3:20 p.m. explosion, on a side street between Calhoun Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

One other person was near the explosion, but not injured, officials said. City firefighters first on scene did not enter the structure, waiting for all the utilities to be shut off. Shortly before 4 p.m., the strong smell of natural gas permeated the block in North Trenton.

A PSE&G spokeswoman said utility crews shut off the gas to the two homes, and the cause of the incident was under investigation.

At 6 p.m., Trenton firefighters had not entered the homes and were waiting for New Jersey Task Force 1 - the state's urban search and rescue unit, which had just arrived on scene - to deploy special cameras and K-9 units to inspect the rubble.

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Tharp said shortly after 7 p.m. that initial searches of the homes had begun. Trenton Fire Director Qareeb Bashir said from the scene earlier the department had reports of the smell of natural gas before the explosion, but the actual cause of the blast is under investigation.

The two people taken to a city hospital were from one of the two houses, firefighters said at the scene. The other home was currently uninhabited, but it will need to be searched.
"We're not 100 percent sure someone isn't under there," Bashir said of the vacant house.

Trashawn Collins, who lives across the street, said she was home for about 10 minutes and heating up leftovers when she heard an explosion and her whole house shook. She ran outside to see if everything was ok. "Everything wasn't," Collins said.

People were running to the damaged homes, which were smoking, twisting and settling, and she heard screams. A man with a white shirt broke a window of one of the homes, then someone threw a tire into the window to make the hole bigger for escape, she said.

Collins then helped a man and woman from the home. The man appeared more injured, with cuts to his hand and foot. She said the man said the man said he was asleep when the home exploded.

Both residents were taken to arriving ambulances, she said.

This is the second house explosion in New Jersey in two days. In Paterson Tuesday morning, a natural gas explosion leveled two homes, damaged 13 others and injuring the ears of 18 emergency responders.