LIMESTONE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The blast that leveled a home in Lycoming County Thursday night was so powerful that neighbors not only felt it, some of them had damage to their houses, too.
Karen Breon was making dinner Thursday night when her house shook and she heard what she calls the loudest boom she's ever heard.
"Looked out the door and the neighbor's house was just gone. I mean gone," Breon recalled. "I got out of the Air Force, so I've heard sonic booms before and it was louder than that. It was just this huge boom."
"It was an awful boom," said neighbor John Brown. "Things fell off the wall and at first we thought it was lightning."
Neighbors tell Newswatch 16 when they heard the boom, they ran outside to see what happened. The homeowner, Mike Lupole, 63, who was in the shower was trapped under debris and some neighbors pulled him out.
"We just slid him out into the backyard to get him away from the gas tank. We didn't know what the story was with the tank other than that it could blow," said Brown.
The blast was so powerful that neighbors not only felt it, they got some damage to their houses, too.
Neighbors spent the day cleaning up the messes outside their own houses. Breon is thankful the couple who lived in the home is OK. She knows it could have been so much worse.
"You can't believe something like that happens. I mean, to look out and a house that should be there is just gone."
Family members tell us Lupole has injuries to his leg. Jacqueline Strosser, 45, who was on the porch at the time of the blast, was treated and released from the hospital and is staying with family.