Neighbors shaken by house explosion

SOMERSET, MASS (WPRI) - One day after a powerful explosion leveled a house in Somerset and damaged nearby homes on New York Avenue, resident living nearby are picking up the pieces.

"We stayed with our in-laws in Fall River. Everyone seems to be okay, it's just a little sad around here," says Deborah Frank.

At a news conference on Friday, authorities mapped out a time-line of what happened and when.Eyewitness News has learned a natural gas leaked was reported just after 5p.m., the blast happened at 6:20pm.

Ashley Frank, who lives nearby says, "I just really didn't want to come back home because I thought it was going to happen again through the night."

New York Avenue has been closed since that explosion and everyone in the immediate area has been evacuated because the neighborhood was without power and gas.

In the daylight hours following the blast, the area looks like a bomb went off. A 63-year-old woman was killed along with her dog when her home went up in flames.

Her body was found in the front yard, "When I looked, when I looked I said Oh God Rosie's house cause I'm after Rosie."

Madline Champagne lives right next door to the victim, Rosemarie Rebello, and still can't go home because the area is blocked off.

"It was unbelievable, I couldn't believe it, how the whole house, they said the whole house blew."

"Basically, there's probably three or four houses right in that surrounding area that are severely damaged and there are others ones that have minor damage and that's what we're going to be checking out today, see which ones that people can get back into and secured."

Somerset officials and police are calling the area a crime scene until there's proof otherwise, right now all signs point to a gas leak since the first report of a gas smell was first reported around 5pm, some now question whether this could have been prevented had the gas been turned off.

"They pretty much make the decision because they're gonna run around and try and figure out where the valves are and everything else."

"We all felt the explosion, we all thought something hit our house, and I went outside to check my house and my neighbor's were all outside, we didn't know what was happening."

Police are now focused on going door to door and entering homes to make sure no one else paid the price like the woman known affectionately as Rosie.

"She was a great person, very great, she's kind hearted and everything."

Safety page from the NE Gas Association

Safety page from NE Gas