‘Part of my house fell on me.’ Deadly California fireworks blast empties neighborhood
When the house next door blew up, the concussion blasted Arlene Fiero to the floor as she screamed in terror, a video posted to Twitter shows.
“My leg caught fire,” Fiero told KABC. “Part of my house fell on me, part of the door and part of the wall, it just collapsed from the explosion.”
An explosion Tuesday afternoon involving commercial-grade fireworks stored at a home in Ontario, California, killed two people, fire officials told the Los Angeles Times.
The blast rocked the neighborhood and sent a pillar of smoke into the sky, videos show.
“It was one of the scariest things I’ve experienced,” Fiero told KABC. “Just felt like I was in a war zone.”
An evacuation order for the neighborhood remained in place Wednesday as a bomb squad clears the area while other agencies, including the FBI, investigate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“We’re going to have several days of picking up debris and disposing of all the explosives we are able to find,” said Ontario Fire Chief Roy Gayk, KTTV reported.
The 12:30 p.m. blast involved commercial-grade fireworks, “the type of explosives … you would normally see at a fireworks show,” Gayk told The Press Enterprise.
“I thought it was an earthquake,” neighbor Erika Rodriguez told KNBC. “It felt like 9/11.”
Firefighters also rescued a horse trapped by flaming debris near the home, KTTV reported.
Jennifer Nalbandian felt the initial explosions from inside her nearby apartment and opened her front door to check things out, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The boom pushed me back, and the window shattered,” Nalbandian told the publication. “I got hit with the after-blast when I opened the door.”
Javier Galvez initially thought someone had crashed into his car as he drove past the neighborhood, The Press Enterprise reported.
“My car went up in the air a little bit,” Galvez told the publication. “I thought my car got hit from behind, and then I opened the door to see, and all of a sudden I see parts of a building, of a house, up in the air, coming down, like raining.”
Fireworks continued going off for hours after the explosion, according to the publication.
Fiero said fireworks went off frequently at the home where the explosion took place, KABC reported.
“This happens year-round,” she told the station. “I always hear explosions coming from the house, illegal fireworks.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 10:58 AM with the headline "‘Part of my house fell on me.’ Deadly California fireworks blast empties neighborhood."