Firefighters are monitoring a home in Independence after putting out flames early Wednesday morning.
Firefighters say their first crews showed up around 7:20 a.m. to a home in the 16000 block of York Avenue as thick smoke and flames rose from the house. It took more than an hour for crews to get the fire under control.
According to sources, neighbors said they heard a loud "boom."
“We kept hearing popping and booms from inside the house and it was just very scary,” said neighbor Tonya Gentry.
Steve Beckerle lives next door to the home that caught on fire. He says he ran to help when he saw the flames.
"I just wanted to get them out and make sure whoever was home was OK," Beckerle said. "I was just in the right place at the right time and I was concerned about them."
Beckerle said he helped rescue Karen Dodson, who lives in the home and was upstairs during the fire.
The home is now destroyed and an investigation into the cause is continuing. Investigators have ruled out criminal activity as a cause, however.
Linus and Karen Dodson both lived in the home for 30 years. Linus Dodson said when he left for work on Wednesday morning, nothing seemed wrong.
"No [dangerous] signs at all," he explained. "When I left this morning, I smelled no gas or nothing."
The Dodson family is now left with trying to figure out what to do next.
"I have to see what we're going to do here as far as replacing the house or clearing the lot and moving on," said Linus Dodson.
The fire investigation is expected to take a few days before an official cause of the explosion is known.
White smoke emerging from @CityOfIndepMO house fire pic.twitter.com/7JqbMlEUd5
— Andres Gutierrez (@AFGutierrez) January 13, 2016
.@CityOfIndepMO FF monitoring hotspots, homeowner made it out of the house explosion uninjured no else home pic.twitter.com/QKLAJ4LQQm
— Andres Gutierrez (@AFGutierrez) January 13, 2016
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