By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
AN explosion at a house in Bel Air, Maryland, on Sunday morning, killed two people and left another person injured.
Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire described the deceased as a utility contractor already at the property to check out a report of a gas leak and the home’s 73-year-old owner, who was preparing that day to meet a real estate agent about putting the residence up for sale.
Mirna Alsharif and Dennis Romero reported for NBC News that the injured person, a neighbor who suffered cuts and bruises, declined treatment.
Identities of the deceased will be released by a medical examiner later, Alkire said at an afternoon news conference.
“He was preparing to actually list his home for sale today,” Alkire said of the 73-year-old.
The man 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. Then, the explosion happened, he said.
Alkire described the dead utility worker as a Baltimore Gas and Electric contractor.
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 the deceased worker.
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.
The timeline could be key to an investigation joined by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and detectives with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
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.
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.
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