Ian Carlson was finally able to go inside. Thursda
When Ian Carlson walks into his house in east Ottawa for the first time since an explosion happened nearby last Monday, he sees cracked ceilings and exposed insulation, and most of his back wall is gone.
When you look through his front door, you see straight into his backyard, which is like looking through a tunnel.
Upstairs, the ceiling has fallen in over the crib where his 17-month-old son sleeps. The last time he went into the room, it was to quickly grab his son and run away.
Just two months ago, his family moved in.
“When you live there, doesn’t it feel like home?” Carlson said Thursday, when he came out of the house with a few of his own things.
“When you walk in there today, it looks almost like a crime scene.” “It doesn’t make you feel like home the way it did before.”
Since then, police have given the site off Tenth Line Road back to the developer, Minto Communities, while they continue to look into what is now being called arson.
Homeowners in the Avalon Vista neighborhood, like Carlson, are now finding things like red Xs painted on the fronts of their homes. These are left over from search-and-rescue efforts.
Carlson said, “It almost seems a little strange.” “It’s like you can see your things, but they’re all broken and spread out.”
Watch what went on in Avalon Vista that morning:
Since the explosion on Feb. 13, Carlson has been thinking about a lot of things, like whether or not his house will be a total loss and how big the repairs will be.
Four houses on the corner were completely destroyed.
“There’s debris everywhere because the whole back wall was pretty much just blown off,” he said about the inside of his home.
“So there’s just broken glass, trash, and furniture lying around.” “It looks like something just blew up behind the house.”
He said that when he left the house, he didn’t notice any of the damage because he was focused on getting away with his two children.
On Thursday, a structural engineer checked out the house, but a lot is still unknown.
Carlson said, “Everything is still up in the air.” ” Knowing that the foundation is solid means that they’ll probably try to keep at least the foundation and most of the structures.
But, as you know, that depends on the insurance.
Residents want answer
The explosion on Blossom Pass Terrace was caused by a gas leak, according to firefighters. Several people were hurt, and two people had to be pulled alive from the rubble. No one was hurt.
Jiao Lee says that life hasn’t gone back to normal just yet. The thought that the leak might have started inside a house in her development is almost too much to handle.
She said on Wednesday, “If it’s inside the house, that means it’s the building, right?” “If it’s construction, if they make a mistake there, they might make a mistake in my house or another house.”
“I’d rather not think about it.”
Abhi Mann, another neighbor, said, “Whatever the reason was, it should be found out.”
In an email sent Thursday, Minto said that safety is the most important thing to them as they clean up, check on homes, and look to start building again soon.
The Ottawa police said that more information about their investigation might not be made public for a few weeks.
“I know that the Ottawa police are working very hard on this, but it’s stressful for everyone in this community,” Orleans-South Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts said Wednesday.
“We need to find out what happened here so that it doesn’t happen again.”