It’s been six months since a house blew up on an east Mississauga street, shaking the normally quiet neighbourhood and damaging dozens of nearby homes, but Natalie Lewandowski says she still has nightmares.

Twelve weeks pregnant at the time, Lewandowski was home alone when the house on Hickory Dr., just a few houses away from the one she shared with her mother, boyfriend and sister, exploded without warning.

“I’m traumatized by it. ” Lewandowski told the Star Wednesday. The force of the explosion shattered the townhouse’s windows and lifted the vent covers out of the floor; a piece of lumber pierced through the roof.

“I was in the living room and the explosion happened and I literally thought I was going to die,” she said.

Lewandowski’s family hasn’t been able to return since; the townhouse, owned by her mother, was badly damaged and is still undergoing repairs, one of 33 homes still uninhabitable half a year later.

“Now, any noise I hear scares me. I get frightened so easily,” Lewandowski said. “… Every loud noise or bang or anything outside, I’m like, ‘What’s happening?’”

And although what happened is clear, how and why is still murky.

Owned by Robert Nadler and his spouse Diane Page, Hickory Dr. suddenly exploded on June 28, raining chunks of concrete, wood, paper and pink insulation down on the surrounding neighbourhood.

Both were killed in the explosion.

The blast and debris damaged the structural integrity of 69 surrounding homes. Since then, four have been demolished; up until about two weeks ago, 36 homes were still uninhabitable but three families were able to move back in recently, according to Mississauga Fire Chief Tim Beckett. The city’s still awaiting the final cost of damages, he added, but said the figure would definitely be “in the millions and millions of dollars.”

The investigation into the explosion, a collaboration between Peel police and the Ontario Fire Marshal, is “still ongoing,” Sgt. Josh Colley said Wednesday. He was unable to provide details, including the cause of the explosion, because police hadn’t received the fire marshal’s report on the explosion yet, he said.

Police had expected to have the report by now, Colley added, but several fire-related deaths across the province in recent months appear to have slowed down the process.

“We’re hoping to have a press conference with information very soon… But we won’t put anything out until we actually have the Fire Marshal’s report in hand,” he said.

The fire marshal’s office declined to comment.

In the meantime, local councillor Chris Fonseca said the city is focusing on getting families back into their homes as soon as possible, but that barriers to that include insurance issues and waiting on engineering reviews.

To help speed up the process, the city has expedited building permits for all impacted properties, Fonseca said. City council has also passed motions waiving late property tax payment fees and water utility and storm water fees, and the city is also offering help to citizens with their 2016 tax reassessments.

“I have to say, the community all around has been so supportive of these families,” Fonseca said, noting that local businesses and residents have held fundraisers and donated time, space and resources to families shut out of their houses.

“Hopefully it won’t be this time next year that we’re still talking about this,” Fonseca added. “We need to be quick in getting them back into their homes, but in as safe of a way as possible.”

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For Lewandowski, the soonest her family would be able to get back into its house would be in April or May, she said, assuming that the repairs go according to plan. In the meantime, her mother and sister are living temporarily in a house paid for by insurance; Lewandowski and her boyfriend found another place to live, in anticipation of their baby, who she gave birth to earlier this week.

It’s less than ideal, Lewandowski said.

“We still have so many questions that are unanswered,” she said. “Christmas wasn’t the same. We couldn’t decorate our own place. Just everything has been affected by it… It’s just been a huge upheaval in our lives.”

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