The majority of the damage is in the back of the home. An 11-year-old child was among the injured, he said, but the names of the injured have not yet been released.
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Officials have not yet identified a cause for the blast, but Mr Bollwage said authorities are looking at the possibility of a gas explosion. None of the victims had been identified yet but Bollwage said that it appeared all of the victims were inside the two-family duplex that exploded. Several of those buildings were severely damaged in the incident and will be torn down, Bollwage said.
Triage units have been set up at the scene, where the explosion occurred just after 8 a.m. today.
– One person has been killed and multiple people have been pulled from the rubble of a house explosion in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Paramedics took them to Trinitas Regional Medical Center, along with three others.
The remaining victims, whom Bollwage said were mostly sleeping in the rear of the building at the time of the explosion, were being treated at other area hospitals.
Spokeswoman Kelly Vence tells NJ.com (http://bit.ly/1PCjKUx ) firefighters are still searching the scene on Magnolia Avenue, and three people have been flown to hospitals for treatment.
“I was woken up, knocked out of bed”, an emotional Wayne Shephard, who lives with his wife and son next to the home that exploded, told WNBC.
Investigators from local utility company Elizabethtown Gas were busy inspecting the house.
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Multiple people were seen being taken away from the home on stretchers, according to a witness’ photos.
