Area residents hear, feel explosion

WILSON, N.Y. (WIVB) - People miles away from Tuesday morning's home explosion say they could hear the blast.

Neighbors from the area crowded around the tragic scene Tuesday morning, and hours later they were still in complete shock.

The home’s next door neighbors told News 4’s Nalina Shapiro that his home filled with smoke, when the home exploded around 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Niagara County residents who were working six miles away could feel the blast, but had no idea what happened.

>> Full Coverage: See photos of the explosion, the victims, and the vigil. Listen to audio of crews learning of the devastation. Read stories about the community coming together for the Johnson family.

Jennifer Porter felt the blast and said, “I could see the windows shake at my work, about five miles away from here.”

Niagara County resident Erik Burming said, “I almost thought it was an earthquake tremor at first, the way that it felt, I just had no clue what it was.”

Porter described what she saw, “You couldn’t see anything, it was just all smoke. There wasn’t any flames, there was just huge clouds of smoke everywhere.”

The home’s next door neighbor Matthew Henderson said, “The pressure from it knocked stuff off the walls in our house, and you know, woke us up from a sound sleep. I looked over to the neighbors, and there house was completely level. Probably about 15 minutes after that, the house was completely engulfed in flames, or the pile of rubble was completely engulfed in flames.”