Dash camera footage shows massive New Jersey home explosion

Nearby homes had been evacuated and gas company crew members were investigating a possible gas leak Tuesday morning when a massive explosion rocked a New Jersey neighborhood, injuring numerous people on the scene.

A police dash camera shows a home blowing up in New Jersey’s Stafford Township. New Jersey Natural Gas spokesman Michael Kinney told The Post that crews were on the scene about an hour before the explosion, the cause of which hasn’t yet been determined. Seven NJ Natural Gas employees were taken to the hospital, he said.

Officials said six firefighters and two emergency management technicians were also injured in the blast, the Ashbury Park Press reported. Stafford Police Capt. Tom Dellane told the paper that police had evacuated about 75 homes in the area.

“The house has been disintegrated,” Stafford Township Mayor John Spodofora told Philadelphia NBC affiliate WCAU.

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Stafford Fire Chief Jack Johnson, who went to the hospital after the explosion caused him hearing problems, said at an afternoon press conference that the explosion knocked a firefighter to the ground, NJ Advance Media reported. Dellane added that homes on either side of the explosion were so damaged that they were they uninhabitable.

People as far as 10 miles away heard the blast, according to local reports. Neighbor Kim McElwee told NJ Advance Media that she heard a big “Kaboom!”and thought a car had hit her house. The explosion shook her home and her feet were lifted from the floor. “It was scary,” she told the paper.

Lou and Michelle Peccarelli were in the middle of a business meeting a couple of blocks from where homes were evacuated when the house blew up.

“We were in the office with a customer for maybe half an hour and Wammo!” Lou Peccarelli told the Ashbury Park Press. “The whole house shifted and went back.”

The gas company has shut off the gas main, which means 300 customers are without service, Kinney said. The line should be restored by Wednesday morning.

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