HOUSE EXPLOSION AND 3-ALARM FIRE IN COLONIAL OAKS IN SARASOTA, FLORIDA. THE EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN THE GARAGE, PERHAPS A METH LAB EXPLOSION AS THE NEIGHBORS SMELLED SOLVENTS

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

SARASOTA, FLORIDA

Fire Rescue crews say they were called to the fire around 9:24 p.m. at 2141 Cork Oak Street in the Colonial Oaks subdivision.
They say 911 callers reported hearing a loud boom and then seeing the home on fire.

"We were in the house watching TV and all of a sudden it just blew," one neighbor said. "The room blew and the roof went up and I thought, God, the house is going to blow up." 

Once on scene, firefighters found the house fully engulfed in flames.

It's unclear whether or not people were inside the home at the time of the explosion.
The Sarasota County Fire Department and Sarasota County Sheriff's Office are on scene putting out hot spots as of early Friday morning.

Anyone with information should call Criminal Investigations Section at 941-861-4900 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 941-366-TIPS (8477).  

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An explosion that blew the roof off a home in Sarasota’s Colonial Oaks subdivision Tuesday night ignited a blaze that engulfed the home, threatened neighboring houses and knocked the garage door into a house across the street.

There were no reports of injuries, and firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze at 2102 Cork Oak Street.

Firefighters said that the source of the blast, which occurred around 9:30 p.m., appeared to be “chemical in nature.” No natural gas serves the neighborhood.

Tax records show that the home, a three-bedroom, two-bath, single-family residence built in 1988, is owned by Mark and Mary Ellen Pellman, but it was unclear whether the Pellmans lived in the home. Neighbors said that the home’s occupants owned two vehicles, one of which was not at the premises.

Firefighters conducted a brief search of the home, but said that the building was too unstable to search the residence thoroughly.

Firefighters said that when they arrived, fire was coming through “every orifice of the house” — every door and window — and that the flames were flickering onto neighboring houses, whose residents were evacuated.

A nearby resident, Jackie Bohannon, said that heat from the blaze was so intense “you could feel it from a block or two away.” 

“I heard a loud boom, and my car lifted up off the ground,” Bohanon told the Suncoast News Network. “I was petrified, because you didn’t know what it was. It sounded like a bomb, and then there was a huge smoke cloud.”

Neighbors speculated that the home’s occupants had been doing cabinetry work in the garage.

An eyewitness tells ABC 7, "the garage was on fire first and that there was insulation and pieces of a Styrofoam cooler raining from the sky.  I saw the debris about 2 blocks from the explosion."

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Criminal Investigations Section at 941-861-4900 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS (8477), online www.sarasotacrimestoppers.com.

This may have been a meth lab.  We will see what the sheriif’s office says.


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UPDATE

SARASOTA COUNTY - ONE PERSON IS DEAD AFTER A HOME EXPLOSION THURSDAY NIGHT IN SARASOTA COUNTY. 

The explosion happened at 2141 Cork Oak Street.

Authorities responded at 9:24 p.m. to an explosion and fire at 2141 Cork Oak St.

One fatality has been confirmed, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.  No more information has been released.

The incident is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal, Sheriff's Office and Sarasota County Fire Department.