Like a combat zone: Calgary townhouse explosion victim talks up

Calgarian Owen DeFoe returned on Monday to assess what remained of his Monterey Park townhouse, which had been completely destroyed by a catastrophic explosion less than 48 hours before.

DeFoe compared it to a "war zone" and claimed he was still "trying to come to grips" with what had happened.



When the explosion rocked the 0-100 block of Las Americas Villas N.E. on Saturday night, six people—one critically injured—went to the hospital. His apartment was one of four destroyed.

DeFoe exclaimed, "I'm speechless." "It's wild."

The investigation into what caused the explosion is still ongoing.

Around 11:30 p.m., DeFoe claims to have heard a tremendous boom while he was in his basement.

When he got outdoors, he saw fire and smoke.

When DeFoe got back to his house, he hurried upstairs to obtain his high-achieving wife and children.

After they were all safely outside, he began assisting with the evacuation of nearby units.

"We all got to safety, and everything was up in smoke pretty much at that point," DeFoe added.

According to DeFoe, his wife and their two children, who are one and four years old, just managed to escape their house with the clothing on their backs.

He remarked, "That night was chaos."

Puss, their fifteen-year-old cat, is still absent.


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