Central Coast neighborhood decimated by explosion which destroyed one home, damaged about 10 others

Table Of Content

• Sign up for Noozhawk's FREEdaily newsletters!
• Officials suspect the cause of the home explosion may have been a gas leak
• Explosion destroys Santa Maria house, damages nearby homes
• Serena Guentz, Noozhawk Staff Writer
• Investigation continues into cause of home explosion in Santa Maria that injured four people

First responders assembled searched teams and entered homes, searching for and extracting residents. Joyce Lippman, also a resident of Hancock Village, said fortunately the damage to her house was minimal. Lippman said she was in the middle of a Zoom training meeting when the explosion occurred. Officials are still calculating damage estimates for the remaining 22 homes.

Sign up for Noozhawk's FREEdaily newsletters!

Are seen Thursday after a gas leak caused an explosion that leveled the Santa Maria home in August. The blast leveled two townhomes and shattered windows and garage doors in the immediate area of the explosion. Three people were injured in the explosion according to the on-scene crew. Two were taken to Marian Region Medical Center, and one possibly to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Officials suspect the cause of the home explosion may have been a gas leak

The evacuated area did not extend to Allan Hancock College, and there was no threat to the Santa Maria campus, but people reported feeling the blast blocks away. We also asked Santa Maria Fire officials for an update on those who were injured, but they said that information was not yet available. “I figure it might have been something in my backyard it was that close," Razo said told KSBY. "I thought maybe a gas tank blew from a barbeque I had the weekend before.

Explosion destroys Santa Maria house, damages nearby homes

The explosion Wednesday afternoon, which damaged 24 residences including the one that was destroyed at 1219 Jackie Ln., was accidental, and caused by an open natural gas outlet in the kitchen, officials said Thursday. Officials determined 24 homes, including the destroyed one, sustained damage. The damage ranged from total loss to minor issues, such as broken windows. The house at 1223 Jackie Lane, located next door to the one that exploded, sustained heavy damage, affecting about 75% of the structure. A roof of a nearby residence is seen damaged after an ammunition explosion at Prey Beng village in Kampong Speu province, Cambodia, Sunday, April 28, 2024.

“I’ve had 17 years of experience in the fire service, but I’ve never seen something like this,” Dandridge said as he described the destruction in the neighborhood. “So this is part of a wall, and part of the garage door from the house,” said Santa Maria Fire Chief Brad Dandridge. A stucco wall from the gutted house is on the ground, after being thrown about 100 feet.

Serena Guentz, Noozhawk Staff Writer

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Meanwhile, Rudy Razo, who lives just a few houses down from the damage, says Wednesday’s explosion shook his entire home. She has covered education, the pandemic, the vaccine rollout and breaking news throughout California. She was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of a dive-boat fire off the Santa Barbara coast. Shalby grew up in Southern California and graduated from George Washington University.

One injured after hydrogen peroxide hose bursts at Chiquita Canyon Landfill

Eight Santa Maria homes red-tagged following explosion - Santa Maria Times

Eight Santa Maria homes red-tagged following explosion.

Posted: Fri, 25 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

According to an Aug. 27 update from the city, the woman who was inside the home at the time is 83 years old and in critical condition with burn injuries. The adjacent neighbor was trapped in rubble and extricated, but is in stable condition. Two others were transferred to the hospital for medical care, but there is no updated information at this time.

The city of Santa Maria thanks everyone who contributed to the aid effort in the aftermath of the explosion. Preliminary estimates indicate $440,000 of damage occurred to the structure at 1219 Jackie Lane. Additionally, $100,000 worth of belongings at the home were damaged or destroyed.

While high temperatures normally can’t detonate ammunition, they can degrade the stability of explosives over a period of time, with the risk that a single small explosion can set off a fire and a chain reaction. There has been no public explanation of what caused the Saturday afternoon blast at the base in Kompong Speu province, though there were no suggestions it was triggered deliberately. Photos shared by the Santa Maria Police Department showed a suburban home reduced to rubble. The home was in rubble, there were no more walls, no more ceiling. In the initial explosion, the fire was limited but the home was in rubble, all that was left was the frame,” Dandridge said. Eight homes were red-tagged and are considered “unsafe to enter,” officials said in an update Friday.

Police officers searching and evacuating nearby homes found four injured people who were transported to local hospitals. A Santa Maria house was destroyed in an apparent explosion Wednesday afternoon and several people were receiving medical treatment for injuries, according to city officials. A woman who was inside a Santa Maria house that exploded last week due to a natural gas leak is in critical condition, according to an update provided by authorities. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation, though officials suspect it may have been caused by a gas leak, the Santa Maria Times reported.

A survey updated the number of surrounding homes damaged by the blast from 10, to 23. The property at 1223 Jackie Lane sustained an estimated $425,000 in structural damage. It had $75,000 worth of destroyed or damaged belongings. At one point, a search dog was used to comb through the wreckage for additional victims, but it was determined there was no one else inside. The home in the 1200 block of Jackie Lane was rocked by an explosion just after noon Wednesday. All that’s left of the home where the blast occurred is the frame of its garage.

Everyone was curious, scared, wondering, asking a thousand questions." Jacob is your community news reporter covering the Santa Maria Valley. Soumya Karlamangla previously covered healthcare in California for the Los Angeles Times.

A KSBY News crew at the scene says at least one home appears to be completely destroyed, while neighboring homes sustained broken windows and debris is strewn across the neighborhood. Authorities now say a natural gas leak was the cause of an explosion which rocked a Central Coast neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, injuring four people. Santa Maria fire officials who were on the scene Wednesday say the explosion was “accidental in nature,” adding that it originated in the kitchen and the cause was an open natural gas outlet. When he returned to his own house hours later, he found it undamaged but other villagers’ houses had broken windows, doors and roofs, he said. Images showed several badly damaged buildings on the base, at least one with its roof blown off, and soldiers receiving treatment in a hospital. Other photos showed nearby houses with holes in their roofs.