Deadly explosion rocks north Edmonton

An explosion at a house near 91 St. and 179 Ave. around 1:30 p.m. Sunday has killed four people. Police are treating their deaths as suspicious. One woman and one child were also been taken to hospital as a result of the blast.

The homicide unit has now been called in to investigate, and police say the deaths are being treated as suspicious, as the cause of the blast has not yet been determined.

Residents living nearby told Global News they could feel their homes shake during the blast, which completely destroyed the house, and significantly damaged the two houses on either side of it. Up to 15 homes on the block were also damaged.

The area around the explosion is scattered with debris, and windows in cars and homes nearby are smashed out.

Twenty-one fire crews responded to the scene; evacuating dozens of residents in neighbouring homes and blocking off traffic to the area.

Lindsey Rayner, a licensed nurse practitioner lives four blocks from the scene of the explosion. She rushed to the scene after getting a call that her friend's mother had been injured.

“Please come help me. She’s hurt. She’s hurt. People are hurt.”

When Rayner arrived at her friend's house she found the garage caved in, the windows shattered.

She found her friend's mother sitting under a tree. She waited with her for almost 20 minutes for an ambulance, but could do little else.

“She was restless and in pain but I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t have anything,” Rayner said.

Most of the evacuated residents will likely be out of their homes overnight.

Fire crews say it was lucky that more people were not injured. Damage from the explosion is estimated at $2 million.

With files from The Edmonton Journal