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LAYTON — An explosion in the basement of a Layton home critically injured a couple who were doing some kind of home improvement project Saturday afternoon.
A man and woman were working in their home near 850 N. 2175 West when the "flash fire" occurred just after 3 p.m., burning them, said Layton Fire Battalion Chief Brad Wilkes.
"They were in working apparently on a basement floor, whether they were painting, sealing, we're not sure, but the explosion happened in the floor," Wilkes said.
After the explosion, the man was able to walk out of the basement, but the woman collapsed at the stairs. Neighbors came to help the two on their front lawn until paramedics arrived.
"I've not seen anything like this, well where someone survived especially," Wilkes said. "No I've never seen this kind of damage from a blast, ever."
He said the explosion caused severe damage to the home, with one side of the house being blown off. An entire wall could be seen leaning against a nearby home.
People in the housing development reported hearing a big boom.
"I thought it was an earthquake," one neighbor said.
"It almost sounded like a very heavy object falling and then the ground started shaking," said Preston Tiffany, who lives next door to where the blast occurred. "I saw a fireball roll up our neighbor's outside wall right outside our windows."
The explosion sent him and others running out of their house.
"Our neighbors came staggering out of their home," he said. "They looked pretty banged up."
Jared Adams lives nearby and was surprised to see all the damage that was caused.
"The whole exterior wall was blown off. The amount of force that would take is insane," he said. "The first good day we have, and then this happens."
"The house is uninhabitable. It will need to be torn down. It's going to be condemned," Wilkes said. "We'll have to figure out for sure what happened with whatever exploded."
Wilkes wasn't allowing anyone inside the home until experts could ensure that the house was safe to enter.
"We can only look in, we won't put any crews in the basement. The floor is unstable. All the structural members in the floor system are blown apart," he said. "From what we can see, the basement is pretty much gone."
Wilkes said the man and woman were transported by medical helicopter to the burn unit at University of Utah Hospital.
"Burn injuries for sure from a flash explosion," the battalion chief said. "But given the damage to the house that you can see, we suspect some traumatic blast injuries."
Tiffany said his injured neighbors are newlyweds.
"They just got married not that long ago. ... They're so amazing, lovely people. They have three dogs," he said, adding that he saw all of his neighbors' pets make it safely out of the house. "They're the type of people that, when you hear something like this happened to them, you go, they didn't deserve that."
Those living in the home where a wall is now leaning against it plan to spend the next few days elsewhere while crews work to remove that wall.
Contributing: Michael Houck
