One man dies following explosion at Fort Saskatchewan construction site

One man has died and two others remain in hospital after being injured in a home explosion in Fort Saskatchewan's South Pointe neighbourhood Thursday, according to Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

The worker has been identified by family as 33 year-old Jason Michalycia from Regina.

He and his cousins, Wes and Wilfred Michalycia, were working inside the home when there was an explosion just after 1 p.m. on Thursday. They were working for WIL-FLO Plumbing & Heating at the time of the incident.

The two brothers were taken to hospital by ambulance, while their cousin was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries. He succumbed to those injuries Friday morning.

Deputy Fire Chief Bill Heesing said in a release that the injured workers were out of the house by the time the Fire Department arrived, but did not have details on the extent of their injuries.

Roman Michalycia, Jason's uncle and the father of the other two victims, told Global News on Thursday that Jason was the most seriously injured of the group.

"I'm worried about all three of them," he said.

"My two sons were shaken up pretty good, I guess, but they're not really hurt bad," Roman said. "My nephew... they're a little more concerned about him. They haven't told us too much about what happened to him."

The explosion and resulting fire were contained to the single family home, which was under construction and is now extensively damaged.

A man who was working down the street says he heard the explosion and immediately came running to make sure everyone was okay.

"The walls were blown off the house. I saw a couple guys on the deck burnt up pretty bad and ambulance assisting them, and watched a guy walk down with the ambulance, he was able to walk away which, thank god," said Aaron Starrett.

"The one guy who was walking, his pants were definitely burnt off, missing his hair and pretty burnt up. It looked pretty bad," he added.

The cause of the explosion has been deemed to be a gas leak in the basement of the home. The explosion was strong enough to blow out the front window, the two sides of the house, as well as the rear wall. The neighbouring homes, both unoccupied, have some exterior damage to the siding.

On Friday workers in the area were still in shock over what happened.

"I didn't know something like that could blow up quite so easily as that," says Frank Friesenhan "It's definitely an eye opener."

The investigation has been turned over to Occupational Health and Safety Officers.

You can see a bird's eye view of the scene below:

View photos from the scene below: