Explosion blows roof off house

PALMER — It’s been a wild few months for Roger Coffell and his neighbors in the Valley Trails Subdivision across from Palmer High School.

First, a spark from a vehicle accident touched off a wildfire that threatened the subdivision and evacuated Cedar Hills Subdivision Nov. 29.

The neighborhood was again awash in flashing lights and emergency response vehicles Monday after crews from Palmer, the Butte and Central Mat-Su Fire departments responded to an explosion and house fire on Irene Street Monday around 6 p.m.

Coffell said he was inside his house when he heard the boom and looked outside to see his neighbor’s place two doors down in flames.

“The garage door was blown clear off and laying in the street,” he said.

Palmer Fire Department Assistant Chief Todd Russell said when he arrived he saw the door in the street, flames coming through the garage roof and northerly winds were pushing the fire toward a fence and vehicle to the north.

“Figured I better call everybody,” Russell said.

Fire consumed the fence, the garage and a vehicle inside it, as well as what looked to be the ranch-style home’s main living area.

Coffell said he also saw firefighters carry a dog out of the residence and give it oxygen. As of press time Monday evening, no human injuries were reported.

Russell said the explosion and fire appear to have begun in the garage, but it was still too soon to know the cause.

Firefighters inside and outside the residence doused the last small flames that licked at the charred and smoking rafters while water from their trucks pooled in the streets and turned to ice.

Tammy Watson said an explosion shook her neighborhood, and at first she thought was just the snow on her roof sliding off.

“All I know is it rocked my house,” she said.

But when she looked out her window, flames were blowing toward her house on Auklet.

“We heard a big old boom, so I looked out the window,” Watson said. “Holy smokes, that house is on fire.”

She said she worked for five years for a lady who lived in the house and knows the furnace is in the garage.

“Thankfully the fire department is nearby,” Watson said.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at news@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.