‘I thought it was a dream’: Cape Cod home leveled in massive explosion felt for miles

TRURO, Mass. — A Cape Cod home was destroyed in a powerful explosion that caused a massive fire and left behind an expansive debris field.

Fire crews responding to a report of a blaze at 8 Hardings Way in Truro around 11:30 p.m. learned a home had just exploded, according to Truro Fire Chief Tim Collins.

Video from the scene showed many firefighters working to extinguish the raging flames and pieces of the home littering the neighborhood. Debris was also spotted dangling from tree branches.

“In my 27 years, I’ve never dealt with anything of this extent,” Collins said. “You got a mattress in a tree up there. We also had damage to adjacent homes...You can see the foundation is just utterly destroyed, which is impressive.”

Collins said the explosion could be felt as far away as Brewster, which is more than 20 miles to the south.

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Collins noted that the home runs on both oil and propane. He also said that neighbors reported a secondary explosion.

“Tremendous explosion, a big flash of light, wasn’t sure what it was,” Rich Roberts said. “We both got out of bed, I thought it was a lightning hit but it was a completely clear night. My wife thought it was an earthquake...Then there was a secondary explosion, nearly as large as the first one, and sent a big fireball up over the house.”

Incredibly no one was hurt in the blast, but besides leveling the house, sending a mattress into a tree, and tossing appliances, it did damage to some nearby homes.

“The shock wave knocked out windows everywhere, windows and doors at the house over here and over there,” Roberts added.

The couple who lives on the property happened to be staying in a cottage behind the main home that exploded, according to fellow neighborhood resident Kristen Roberts, who grew up in the house that exploded.

“They were there and they heard an explosion and it blew out their windows,” Perry said.

Roberts said that the blast sounded like a bomb going off.

“I thought it was a dream,” Kristin Perry said. “Boom the house blew up and I was like holy moly.”

Drone video taken by Boston 25 photographer Andy Devine captured the stunning scope of the destructive aftermath.

Drone video shows stunning aftermath of Cape Cod house explosion

Collins also said that his dog was first awoken by the blast, alerting him to the developing situation.

“Substantial brush fire as a result of this and our concern was to keep that from spreading to adjacent homes so we contained it to this area of origin,” Collins said of the multi-town response.

Crews remained at the scene early Friday morning as they awaited the arrival of an excavator to sift through the piles of rubble.

Property records indicate the colonial-style home was built in 1969. It had six bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms.

Neighbors told Boston 25 News that the couple was getting ready to rent the home out for the summer and that’s why no one was in there.

Chief Collins said investigators are looking into the basement as the possible origin but there’s still a lot to look through.

State police detectives are working with local officials to determine the cause of the explosion.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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