Authorities were investigating the cause of an explosion that damaged an apartment building in Van Nuys Saturday night.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was alerted at 5:38 p.m. to the explosion in the 7300 block of Woodman Avenue, according to LAFD spokesman Connor Thompson.
The damage was limited to a single apartment whose occupants (two adults and a child) were not home when the explosion occurred, Thompson said.
No one was injured in the explosion, which shattered the apartment's windows, Thompson said. The Red Cross was helping the occupants find new housing Saturday night, he added.
Maronzio Vance, who lives across the street, was inside his apartment when he heard a massive explosion. “When I had the courage to go out,” he told The Times, “I see that the wall no longer exists. The apartment wall has disappeared. “It's like something you'd see in a Marvel movie.”
Vance filmed video of the building that showed broken glass and window screens scattered across the sidewalk. He said he believed it was a gas explosion. “You can smell the gas from a mile away,” he said.
City officials had recently knocked on the doors of Vance's apartment building, which he said is managed by the same company that oversees the site where the explosion occurred, and talked about turning off the gas because the owner or property manager I hadn't paid the bill. Vance said.
Forty-six firefighters responded to the explosion, the cause of which is being investigated, Thompson said. Inspectors from the city's Department of Building and Safety will also conduct an “extensive damage report,” she said.
