On Sunday, a two-story house collapsed in Austin, Texas, injuring multiple people and damaging at least 23 other homes after witnesses reported hearing a massive explosion, according to authorities.
The Austin Fire Department reports that the two-story house in northwest Austin collapsed around 11:23 a.m. local time.
“When Austin Fire Department crews arrived on scene, they discovered a two-story home that appeared to have suffered an explosion and had been leveled to the ground,” Division Chief Wayne Parrish of the Austin Fire Department said at a press conference Sunday afternoon.
“A second house, a neighboring house, had also suffered severe collapse damage.”
According to Parrish, firefighters discovered a vehicle on fire outside the house that was completely flattened.
“They extinguished the car fire and there was also some smaller spot fires occurring in the debris,” Parish told the media.
According to Capt. Shannon Koesterer, spokesperson for Austin-Travis County EMS, firefighters extricated one critically injured person and another seriously injured person from the home destroyed by the explosion. According to Koesterer, a second critically injured person was extricated from the next-door home, which partially collapsed during the explosion.
According to Koesterer, another adult patient was treated at the scene for minor injuries, and two firefighters, one of whom was hospitalized, sustained minor injuries while working on the scene.
“As far as we know, we have accounted for everybody that was in all of the residences,” Parrish informed the crowd.
Excavators were brought to the scene, according to Parrish, “to help us do more large debris removal.”
According to emergency medical services officials, the incident injured six people, including the critically injured victims, but no one died.
“With this size of explosion, we have approximately, that we know of right now, 24 homes that have reported damage in the area,” said Parrish, adding that many of the damaged homes had broken windows and blown out garage doors.
Parrish added that reports indicated that the explosion could be heard as far away as Georgetown, about 25 miles north of Austin.
The Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office is looking into the cause of the explosion. According to fire officials, the Texas Gas Service confirmed that no underground natural gas lines led to the house, but there was a propane tank.
Witness Chase Miller shared with ABC News a video he took from a parking lot near the explosion, which showed a large plume of smoke billowing from the collapsed house.
Miller told ABC News that he was in the parking lot when he heard a huge boom, then noticed the smoke and began recording.
The explosion was so loud that police in some nearby communities received reports from residents who heard it.
“The explosion rocked our house, and I looked to make sure my dogs were okay, then grabbed my phone and turned it on,” Ingrid Vanderveldt of Austin told ABC News. Vanderveldt also recorded video showing damaged homes near the flattened residence where the blast appears to have occurred.
In the video, Vanderveldt and her husband, who live in the neighborhood rocked by the blast, inspect the area with other residents, discovering broken windows and damaged doors all along their street.