Three men are fighting for their lives after a Courtenay home was rocked by explosions and burst into flames Friday afternoon.
According to witnesses, three men ran screaming from the house on First Street, jumped into a truck and drove themselves to the hospital.
According to Comox Valley RCMP, all three men suffered life-threatening burns and were taken to another hospital by air ambulance.
One witness reported feeling a house-shaking explosion before the home went up in flames
It sounded like someone was getting shot, a bunch of explosions going on and I came outside and all of a sudden that whole building was up in flames,
more explosions happening,” a neighbour told CTV News. “One of the guys was on fire so bad that his shirt was peeling off of him,
so two of them were burnt pretty bad.”
Emergency crews arrived at the home just before 5 p.m. and saw the back side of the building was engulfed in fire.
Several canisters could be seen in the backyard.
“A fire that’s this serious and results in injuries is deemed suspicious until proven otherwise,
so we’re concerned obviously with the witness accounts of some of the explosions, but sometimes those can be explained by barbeques and those kind of propane tanks,”
said RCMP Cst. Jason Whittaker.
The cause of the fire is unknown and the RCMP is waiting for a warrant to search the home.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/explosions-rock-courtenay-home-leaving-3-severely-injured-1.2387817
