By Erin Pierce
Fire and police officials sifted Thursday morning through charred rubble that was once a West Jordan home.
An explosion rocked neighbors out of their beds at 11 p.m. when a huge blast nearly leveled a two-story home. The shock was felt three blocks away.
?It?s all just debris,? said Battalion Chief Marc McElreath, head of the investigation. ?We believe it was in the garage. That?s what we are trying to confirm right now.?
The entire family escaped from the flaming house before the explosion, with the help of neighbors. The four family members, two adults and two children, were transported to the hospital with minor scrapes and bruises.
?They must have had some sort of warning to get them out because there?s no way they would have lived through that explosion,? neighbor Bobby Driver said.
The explosion blew eastward out of the house, throwing the garage door of the home onto a neighbor?s front lawn across the street. The fire and explosion demolished the house and blew debris into surrounding yards. The house to the north of the explosion was paled with smoke, causing minor damage.
?It shook us so hard I thought a car had hit our house,? said Cory Nani, a neighborhood resident. ?We?re three, three and a half blocks away and it shook our doors. We couldn?t believe it. I looked everywhere to see if a car had hit us because that?s seriously what it felt like, like a car had hit our house.?
The first of 10 fire engines arrived at the house within three minutes of receiving the approximate 11 p.m. call Wednesday night.
Tracy Stapel, a neighbor on the corner of the block, said the explosion shook the back of her house, stopping her clock at about 10 minutes to 11 p.m.
?It came right along the back of my house, and I thought ?Oh, I don?t want to look, I don?t want to look, I don?t want to look,?? Stapel said.
Another neighbor, Abby Nani said, ?I was having nightmares all night. It scared us to death. We were absolutely frightened.?
The West Jordan City Fire Department is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the explosion, but no source has been identified yet.
?We are trying to determine what kind of content was in the garage,? said McElreath of the investigation. ?We?re looking for any kind of ignition source, and also what kind of fuel was there.?