Investigation continues into Regina house explosion

Gord Hewitt was taken aback when he visited the site of Sunday’s explosion in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood.

A deputy chief with Regina Fire and Protective Services, Hewitt admitted Monday that “it sets you back a little bit when you show up and see that” because of the rarity of the event.

“(Explosions) are not that common, especially to this magnitude,” he told reporters during a media conference. “I’ve been in the fire service for 24 years and I haven’t seen anything like this yet.”

Crews were still digging through the rubble Monday as they searched for the cause of the explosion.

Just before 11 a.m., a house at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Retallack Street exploded. A person a couple of doors down suffered minor cuts when the window of their apartment blew out, but that was the only injury reported to the Regina fire department.

Hewitt said the Regina Police Service’s bomb squad had been called out, but that wasn’t an indication about the nature of the investigation.

“The reason why we wanted to involve the bomb squad is just their thorough knowledge in explosive incidents,” Hewitt said. “We just felt like that would be a good tool for our investigators to use to support the investigation.

Deputy Fire Chief Gord Hewitt provides an update on a house explosion in Regina on Nov. 14, 2022. (Shane Clausing/980 CJME)

“There’s a significant amount of damage there, so it’s going to take some time to get some of that debris cleared out of there with heavy equipment until we can determine what the cause is.”

Hewitt confirmed SaskEnergy turned off the gas to the house that blew up and to the neighbouring apartment building Sunday, but he couldn’t say if gas was the reason for the explosion.

The deputy chief said the fire department has a backhoe on the scene tearing apart the house to search for a cause. How long the investigation will take isn’t currently known.

Hewitt said the house — which was owned by Regina Housing — was vacant, so he couldn’t say if anyone was inside at the time of the explosion or if any bodies are in the rubble.

“I can only say that our investigation will continue,” Hewitt said. “I can’t rule anything out at this point in time. We just don’t know.”

The apartment building next door was heavily damaged by the blast, while other homes and vehicles in the area also were damaged. Hewitt said the fire department had heard of damage as far away as Albert Street, where a window had been blown out.

Despite the rare nature of the incident, Hewitt was proud of the work the firefighters did.

“This would be unique to most fire services, an incident like this; it’s not typical,” he said when asked if crews were trained for such events. “That’s not to say it hasn’t happened. It’s definitely happened. But we do train in heavy rescue and trench rescue and different aspects of rescue.

“In this case, because the property was completely destroyed and there was no fire at this incident, it’s just a matter of pulling the debris apart and searching through it bit by bit.”

Hewitt said two people in the neighbouring apartment building had been displaced because of the damage it sustained. Those two people were provided shelter.

Some other residents of the area were taken out of their homes and put on a Regina Transit bus to keep them warm while firefighters and police officers canvassed the neighbourhood. The City of Regina also had people go around to houses in the area to board up any windows that had been broken by the blast.

Affected properties were fenced off and police officers did drive-bys to make sure no one entered the site overnight. Hewitt said there were still traffic restrictions in the area Monday.

“There’s quite a bit of debris that we managed to get cleaned up,” he said. “But we want the public to remain away, so those road closures will remain in place until we feel like it’s safe for the public to re-enter the area.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Shane Clausing