NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Officials said they now know what caused a house to explode, injuring three men inside.
The Roswell Fire Department Fire Marshal’s Office said a natural gas leak from a clothes dryer caused the blast Tuesday night.
The home sustained major damage.
A GoFundMe page identified the victims as Win Reid, Brendan Morton and Pat Sammons. Sammons and Morton suffered second- and-third degree burns over half of their bodies. Reid, who was on the opposite side of the house at the time, suffered minor injuries.
"I've heard trees fall, lightning right behind me, but nothing that loud," said Steve Hecht, a man who lives nearby.
Hecht was leaving his home on Tuesday night when the blast rocked his neighborhood.
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"I've never heard a bomb go off, but that's the only way I can describe it," he said.
Hecht called 911 and rushed to help his neighbors.
"When I got up there, it was pretty rough," he said.
Morton and Sammons remain at Grady Hospital with second and third degree burns.
Channel 2's Mike Petchenik spoke with Nick Protentis, a personal injury lawyer for a Sandy Springs firm that specializes in fire and explosion cases.
"In doing our investigations into these types of incidents, we often find that these tragedies are preventable," he said.
Protentis said it's likely too early to know who's liable for the explosion.
"It could be the gas piping underneath the ground in the yard. It could be the gas-powered appliances, gas piping inside the house. It could be a defective appliance," he said.