One man dead after a house explodes in Summit County, officials say

COVENTRY TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WOIO) - A Summit County home exploded Thursday afternoon, according to Coventry Township fire officials.

The explosion occurred in the 140 block of W. Long Lake Drive at 3:03 p.m., officials confirmed to 19 News.

The house is located in the Portage Lakes area of Coventry Township.

Coventry Township Fire Chief Adam Rockich tells 19 News, their preliminary investigation into the cause has rule out natural gas, “Nothing at all is pointing toward Dominion Energy or that this is a natural gas problem. Dominion actually went in, they did a test on the main line, they did not find a leak or anything.”

The fire chief says the blast was so powerful debris landed in yards blocks away, “We had people from streets away calling 911, because we felt the blast even at our fire station which is about a half a mile away.”

19 News crews witnessed officials removing one body from the scene at around 6:30 p.m.

Coventry Township Fire Chief Adam Rockich confirmed the victim was a male who lived in the home, but did not release any further identification. The Fire Chief told 19 News another person who lived there was not home at the time.

Rockich also said two neighboring homes were damaged by the blast.

Allen Doan of Barberton was at the house next door to the explosion visiting his brother. He was sitting in front of the picture window when the explosion knocked both him and his brother to the floor, caught a bedroom on fire, and blew out all of the walls to the home, “If the drapes weren’t in that window, in that bay window, we probably both would not be here. Because everything blew in, and it blew in hard, but drapes were all cut up. But, they stopped us from getting seriously hurt and/or killed.”

Doan’s brother was taken to an area hospital for a possible head injury, but is expected to be okay.

The Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office, along with other agencies, are investigating the cause of the explosion.

This is a developing story. Return to 19 News for updates.

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