Residents of St. Paul, Minnesota got quite the scare last week, when a powerful explosion leveled a home in a suburban neighborhood.
Neighbors say they could feel the ground shake after the blast, which knocked posters off the wall in a grocery store down the street.
"By the time we figured out everything inside was OK, we went outside and saw the home had exploded," Elias Ali, one of the store's workers, told CNN.
"We were devastated, because we live a block away and it could have been ours."
Security footage captured one one of the store's cameras shows an enormous fireball, which appears to launch parts of the home into the air. Afterwards, smoke can be seen trailing up from the wreckage.
One of the first people on the scene after the explosion, St. Paul Fire Capt. Jeremie Baker, said the home "looked like a pile of rubble" when he arrived.
But somehow home's owner, 80-year-old John Lundahl, was pulled from the wreckage.
"You could hear him calling out," remembered firefighter Joaquin Rosales. "Immediately I just began doing my job. I've never experienced anything like this."
As of Monday, Lundahl remains in critical condition at a local hospital, but Baker said it was "miraculous" that he survived at all.
Authorities say it's still too soon to comment on the cause of the explosion, and that nothing has been ruled out.
The local branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are reportedly assisting in the investigation.
While the home where the explosion took place is completely destroyed, at least 19 other buildings were damaged in the incident, and at least 16 people were displaced.
[H/T: CNN, CBS, Star Tribune]
