By Pam Greene and Delen Goldberg
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
Thirteen firefighters were injured Wednesday night in a house explosion in Constantia, according to Dan Dunn, Oswego County’s deputy fire coordinator.
The firefighters’ injuries ranged from serious to minor, Dunn said. Ambulances took them to several Syracuse hospitals, including University Hospital, where a number of firefighters were being treated for burns, Dunn said.
Neighbors described hearing a giant boom from the home at 45 Saunders Drive. They saw one firefighter fly out a door, another two roll out of a window and another two crushed under fallen rocks from a wall. Later, flames burst from the home.< The explosion was reported just before 8 p.m. By 11:30 p.m., the fire was mostly knocked down, Dunn said.
Heather Grote owns the two-story Colonial-style house, according to Oswego County tax records. She was not injured, neighbors said.
Matthew Whaley, 27, of 43 Saunders Drive, said Grote came home from work about 7 p.m., noticed her house filled with smoke and knocked on his door for help. Whaley called 911.
Three fire departments — Cleveland, Constantia and West Amboy — responded.
“They were working on putting the fire out,” said neighbor Dawn Cornett, of 40 Saunders Drive, across the street from the burning home. “It seemed like everything was going well.”
But about 7:45 p.m., a fireball burst through the house. Flames shot 20 feet into the air, Cornett said, and a loud boom rocked the quiet, rural street.
“It didn’t even have an echo to it,” Cornett said. “It was just a big, huge boom.”
Whaley said he saw a firefighter, who had been in the doorway, fly 3 or 4 feet outside the home. The firefighter had severe burns on his face, Whaley said. Two more firefighters rolled out of a window, with burns on their arms.
Then, a rock wall near the home’s fireplace collapsed.
“All the stone came down on two firefighters,” Whaley said.
Whaley rushed to help those he could. He poured cold water on a burned firefighter’s head.
Shortly before the explosion, Whaley said, he had turned off a 500-pound propane tank outside Grote’s home. The tank had been making a funny noise, he said. Cornett also reported smelling a strong stench of propane.
The causes of the fire and the explosion remain under investigation. Fire investigators could not get inside the house early today to determine a cause.
Firefighters from Cleveland, Constantia, West Amboy, West Monroe, Central Square, Parish, Williamstown, Sandy Creek and the North Bay Fire Department in Oneida County responded to the scene, according to a 911 dispatcher. Eight ambulance companies sent rigs to the scene.
Grote “wanted to save her cat, but she couldn’t,” Cornett said. “She was just watching all of this happen, poor thing.”
Rescue efforts were complicated by the geography of the neighborhood, those who live on the block said. Saunders Drive is a narrow street, surrounded by woods. Residents rely on wells for water and have no fire hydrants. A nearby pond was too clogged with debris to pump out the water.
Cornett said ambulances had a hard time maneuvering around the dozens of firetrucks lining the street.
Grote’s house also sits farther back on the road than the 10 or so other homes on the block. Trees, which caught on fire for a short time, surround her home, Cornett said.
“Thank heavens for the soaking rain,” Cornett said, “or we’d all be in trouble.”