KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Gladstone Fire Department confirmed one man died in an explosion Saturday morning that completely destroyed a single-family residence in Gladstone.
The call was received at 11:14 a.m. for a residence in the 100 block of NE 74th Terrace.
Upon arrival, firefighters found the house completely destroyed.
The Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department was dispatched to assist the Gladstone Fire Department in fighting the fire.
Adjacent homes were evacuated as a precaution, authorities said.
One dog also perished in the explosion.
The area has since been secured and is safe, according to officials.
A spokesperson with Spire said the explosion is currently not a natural gas-related incident.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation by ATF and the state fire marshal.
Latrice Robinson lives in the neighborhood and was home when the explosion happened.
“It was the loudest boom I’ve ever heard in my life … louder than 10 M-80s,” she said. “The most scariest sound I’ve ever heard.”
Robinson said she wasn’t sure what to think about what she heard.
“I know it’s crazy, I thought America was being attacked,” she said. “I ducked because I thought ‘incoming.’ I thought we were being attacked, literally from the air.”
She said what she saw was just as alarming.
“Black smoke,” she said. “Almost to the point the neighborhood was cloudy like it wasn’t daylight.”
Several neighbors captured the explosion on their Ring cameras despite other neighbors losing power after the explosion.
William Glen Hall was one of them.
“It’s something you can’t believe,” Hall said. “It’s almost like a movie, especially feeling the explosion and then watching my video and seeing the debris fly.”
Hall said he was sleeping when the sound of the explosion woke him up.
After that, he ran outside to find his other neighbors just as curious.
“We kind of watch out for each other,” he said.
That’s something Ally Dias can attest to.
She and several family members live on and around the block where the explosion happened.
A group of neighbors, including her family, set out chairs, a water cooler and opened up their homes for the victim's family members and other neighbors.
“[There was] a lot of hugging," Dias said. "I know when I got here, we were hugging all our family members that live right here on the block."
Although she wasn’t on the same street, Dias could feel the explosion’s impact a couple blocks away.
“Initially didn’t think anything of it until we got the phone call,” Dias said. “There was debris everywhere, there was people everywhere; it was a total shock.”
Several neighbors still have questions about the explosion’s cause.
"It's just something we really hope gets investigated and figure out what happened there," Hall said.
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