Homicide investigators on scene of Sunday explosion

Homicide investigators from the Edmonton Police Service have now been called in to investigate the deaths of four people after an explosion in north Edmonton on Sunday. According to acting police chief Darryl Da Costa this is standard proceedure after an incident of this kind.

“We are treating this as suspicious, and that is standard process for us in that the deaths are unexplained at this point,” he said.

Global News has spoken to a friend of two of the victims of Sunday's blast. He describes the victims as two men who were born and raised in Edmonton, a 26 year old and a 30 year old. He says he heard about the explosion through a social media site and is saddened by the loss of his friends. He went on to say that the 26 year old man who was killed was engaged to a woman who was pulled out of one of the houses and the future stepfather to her toddler.

Police spokesperson Dean Parthenis confirmed on Monday that at least three of the people killed in the explosion were men. Autopsies on all four victims will likely take place on Tuesday.

Two homes were completely destroyed in the blast and 26 others were damaged. Investigators still don't know what caused the explosion, but Da Costa says that they have ruled out several possibilities.

"I'm told by investigators that there is no indication at this point that the blast was caused by an explosive device or a drug lab." Da Costa told the media on Monday. "The investigation remains active and ongoing. It may take days or weeks to pinpoint the cause."

A spokesperson from Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says the scale of the incident made it a challenging one for members of his team.

"For what we found when we arrived on scene obviously it was a very challenging situation. Any time you have a blast of this magnitude, people are disoriented, you can see the number of homes that were effected and the distruction." said Chief Ken Block of Edmonton Fire Rescue Services. "It takes a significant amount of time to one, deal with the fire that was here and two, do the search and rescue home by home."

Residents whou live in houses affected by the blast are still not able to get back into their homes, many of them fleeing with the clothes on their backs.

"It's been rough" says Marg Whyte, one of the evacuees. "Didn't sleep last night, I stayed at a friends place. I was here at five this morning and now I have to go to work, and I have no clothes, I have nothing."

Structural engineers from the city will be sent in to inspect the damaged homes before the nearly 40 evacuees will be allowed to return to their residences.