Explosion rips through Flint home

The explosion was heard and felt just before 3:40 Sunday afternoon in the 2400 block of Illinois.

A Michigan State Police fire investigator told ABC12 the explosion happened after someone broke into the home and cut a gas supply line while stealing copper. The gas was then ignited by some sort of electrical charge, possibly an appliance cycling on or off.

The homeowner, who did not want to be interviewed, was not at the house when it exploded. She told ABC12 she actually moved three or four months ago after being broken a few times.

Neighbors told us they saw some teenagers in the back yard earlier Sunday and reported seeing the back door left open, but investigators have not yet figured out if they are connected to the case.

When firefighters arrived, they found walls knocked down and a small fire that was quickly put out.

Jody Taylor lives next door and thought what she heard Sunday afternoon was thunder.

"You know how it goes 'boom?' I thought that's what was going on, and I looked out the window and saw what was going on," Jody said.

Neighbor Corie Foor heard and felt the explosion from her basement.

"Sounded like it was in our house and we ran upstairs and saw that the house just blew," Foor said. "Then when we walked around here, it just kept going and it blew out the two sides."

Neighbor Scott Taylor is thankful the flying debris only damaged his outside wall, and not his family inside. "Luckily nothing else happened," he said.

"What you can't see from the back is the entire rear wall and one of the side walls is completely collapsed and the roof structure is sagging and collapsing in the back, so this is a house that's going to need to be removed immediately," said Flint Fire Department Battalion Chief Andy Graves.

The homeowner did have insurance.

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