The remnants of a home on Pine St. are spread all over neighbouring properties, including a cemetery, after an explosion late Sunday evening. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Explosion aftermath

VIDEO: ‘We thought it was a bomb:’ damage extreme and widespread from home explosion

Feb 28, 2022 | 11:08 AM

NANAIMO — Neighbours are spending the day surveying damage after a large explosion destroyed a home on Pine St.

The blast, followed by a massive shockwave which was felt and heard across Nanaimo, occurred around 8:20 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 27. The home, vacant at the time, was completely destroyed.

Lisa Cook lives on Pine St., across the road and just 50 metres from the site of the explosion, which occurred at a home beside St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.

Cook was home with her mother at the time.

The force of the blast rocked the pair off their living room couch.

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“Before we know it, we’re on the floor. We didn’t want to get up because we thought maybe the roof was going to collapse, we thought it was a bomb.”

A picture from the wall fell and hit them.

“We stayed there for a minute then I walked into the kitchen and it was raining through the kitchen because the skylights had been blown off our roof then came outside and saw…house on the road. It was pretty scary.”

Damage to their house is still to be determined. Cook said their landlord is having the foundation checked, while blown out skylights and windows are boarded up.

Some doors in her home were broken, including one with a deadbolt which split down the middle from the blast.

Well over a dozen houses in the neighborhood sustained visible damage, with reports of blown windows and damaged doors.

Insurance adjustors and contractors were seen at multiple homes in the Pine St. area Monday morning.

Another area resident who wished to remain anonymous, offered her account of the jarring blast.

“It knocked us sideways and it lasted a very long time and it felt like things were in slow motion. We got up and we saw all of the transformers blowing and the fireworks, we looked at each other and said ‘that wasn’t a transformer blowing’, it was incredible.”

She was one of two patients taken to hospital for observation and told to monitor for concussion symptoms.

Four others were treated on scene.

“It was a lot, like being rolled in a wave. When you see a bomb wave or blast wave on TV and you see that clear line of dust being thrown in your direction and the camera shake, it’s exactly what it felt like.”

Property damage was reported to homes as far away as Shepherd Ave, several blocks from the explosion.

Nanaimo RCMP confirmed Monday morning they have returned to the house to ascertain exactly what caused the explosion.

Police noted tenants of the building were evicted at the end of January.

Fortis BC, Nanaimo Fire Rescue and Technical Safety BC representatives were among the officials on scene.

A natural gas leak is a potential cause being probed on-scene.

Eyewitness Kristopher Medgyes was meters away when the blast went off.

“I was walking from downtown and was making my way to the church and that’s when I smelled the rotten egg smell, then not ten minutes later I felt the explosion.”

Megyes said he didn’t know the source of the smell and didn’t have a cell phone to report it.

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