BERLIN, MASS. (WHDH) - An investigation was underway Friday after officials said an elderly woman was killed in an early-morning house explosion in Berlin.
The incident took place at a home on Pleasant Street around 3:30 a.m.
Officials blocked off the area around the home and firefighters were called in from 10 communities. Fire crews were later seen spraying water on the house from a truck ladder, working into daylight hours to tamp down hotspots.
As they worked, this incident was personal for many first responders who knew the older woman who lost her life.
“This is something that’s going to stick with them for a long time,” Berlin Fire Chief Michael McQuillen said. “Showing up to something like this, having to extricate friends from the rubble and have a tragic outcome that we had is something that they’ll carry with them for a long time.”
McQuillen said the daughter of the woman who died, who is in her 50s, was inside the home as well. She was rescued by neighbors, who came running out when they heard the explosion and pulled her from the debris.
In an update, Department of Fire Services officials said the woman who was rescued was taken from the scene with what were believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.
“I praise the neighbors for that,” McQuillen said. “It takes a lot of courage. Obviously they have a lot of love for their neighbor.”
Several other houses on the block also had some superficial damage from the explosion.
Neighbors in the area on Friday described the moment hours earlier when the explosion took place, with one describing an “incredible bang” that shook his house.
Mark Smith, who lives on Pleasant Street, said he soon saw the scene before him where a 2.5-story home once stood.
“It was gone,” he said. “And I just wish that no one had been in there when it went.”
An excavator was brought to the scene Friday to begin working the main debris pile and figure out a cause behind this explosion.
As work continued, neighbors said they lost a friend and a pillar of the community.
“The town’s people will stand behind them any way they can,” Smith said.
Officials had not released the name of the person who was killed in this fire as of Friday around 2:30 p.m.
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