Home Explosion Kills Woman, Severely Burns Man In Dakota County

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A home explosion rocked the city of Hampton early Tuesday morning, killing a woman and severely burning a man.

According to the Dakota County Sheriff's office, deputies responded to a home on the 2400 block of Lewiston Boulevard just after 6 a.m. The explosion was reportedly heard as far away as Farmington and Hastings.

"This is the worst fire I have ever been on, the amount of damage that was done," said Randolph-Hampton Fire District Chief Kevin Whitsen.

Several fire departments responded to the scene, arriving to find the remains of a house totally engulfed in flames. Dee Churchill was driving on Highway 52 at the time, and happened to glance over at the time of the explosion.

"There was this huge explosion, like hundreds of feet into the air. It looked like fireworks, there were sparks," Churchill said. "It was a huge explosion. It wasn't like a fire, where somebody was going to walk out of it."

First responders say a man was wandering the scene with severe burns over much of his body, searching for his wife. Her body was found in the rubble at about 9 a.m. The man was taken to Regions Hospital, and his condition is unknown.

Churchill says she had to bring her children back to the site.

"They've been concerned all morning, they've asked questions. 'Could it have been this? Could it have been that?' They've been wondering if it was a house was somebody in it," Churchill said.

For this mother of two, looking at the remains of where so much life was lived is sobering.

"It's really hard, it's really hard," Churchill said.

Investigators believe the man and his wife were the only two people inside at the time of the explosion. The area is blocked off Tuesday evening, as investigators continue to search for an answer as to what caused this explosion.