Neighbors Jerry and Linda Dingledine said they heard a loud, explosion-like noise around 11 p.m. Monday. Seeing no smoke or fire, they did not report it until daylight.
“There was a loud boom; our house shook,” Jerry Dingledine said. “It’s silly now but we thought it was a sonic boom or an aftershock from the earthquake.”
Linda Dingledine said she noticed debris in the roadway when she sent her children off on the school bus.
“I didn’t know if they (the homeowners) were in there; they don’t leave often,” Linda Dingledine said.
According to the Butler County Auditor’s website, the property is owned by Catherine and James Johnson. The homeowners were not home at the time of the incident because they had left around 6 p.m. Monday to visit a relative overnight, said Sgt. Jeff Gebhart of Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
“There was a smell of propane when firefighters got here; (the homeowners) heat the home with propane,” Gebhart said.
The incident remains under investigation by the State Fire Marshal, Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Butler County Bomb Squad and Wayne Twp. Fire.
Shane Cartmill of the fire marshal’s office said an origin and source of the explosion hadn’t been determined as of Tuesday afternoon but no criminal intent is suspected.
“Investigators say there does not appear to have been any fire associated with the explosion,” Cartmill said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2179 or hpoturalski@coxohio.com.
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