

Chris Fox and Kayla Goodfield, CP24.com





An elderly blind man and his service dog were taken to hospital after an apparent house explosion in Hamilton on Tuesday afternoon.

It happened at around 2:15 p.m. at a one-storey home on Gibson Avenue, which is near Birch Avenue and Barton Street.

One person was initially trapped in the rubble but was freed after about an hour.

The man rescued from the debris was identified by family and neighbours at the scene as an elderly man who is blind.

Running towards the ambulance at the scene, the man’s daughter said “he is talking” but officials said the severity of his injuries is not known.

“When crews arrived on scene they found that the home had collapsed and immediately began their search and rescue. We then found that one person was inside and made patient contact,” Hamilton Fire spokesperson Claudio Mostacci told CP24 at the scene. “It took us about an hour but we were able to get the individual out. At the time he was conscious and he was put in the care of paramedics and transported to hospital.”

Neighbours said the man is known to have a service dog with him, but rescuers said they could not find the animal after the explosion.

“Our crews went in with our confined space specialist we were able to access the one patient who was down in the basement,” Mostacci said. “We were able to make contact.”

“There was a dog inside but unfortunately we have not been able to make contact with the dog.”

Officials later confirmed the dog was located after the explosion and was subsequently taken to an animal hospital to be treated.

Neighbour describes loud bang

Images from the scene show the roof of the home at a 45 degree angle to the ground with a wide field of debris in front of the collapsed dwelling. Debris is also seen spread across the roadway.

One neighbor who spoke with CP24 on Tuesday said that he was outside when he heard a loud blast and saw “a white cloud” billowing from the rubble of the home.

He said that he rushed to the property along with another neighbor and began calling out to see if the elderly man who lives alone was OK.

“Me and the young lad across the street were the first ones there and we just started hollering to see where he was because we knew he was there – he is by himself and he is blind,” the man said. “We just walked around the foundation hollering and finally he hollered up at us so we knew he was alive."

Mostacci said that the homes on either side of the collapsed dwelling do not appear to have sustained any damage in the blast.

As a precaution, gas has been shut off to about 300 homes in an area bounded by Birch Avenue, Barton Street, Sherman Avenue and Cannon Street.

Mostacci said that Gibson Avenue will be shut down “for the foreseeable future” to allow for an investigation by the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal.