Multiple smartphone videos captured the harrowing moments when an illegal supply of fireworks triggered a massive, deadly explosion in a Southern California neighborhood.
BuzzFeed News reported the explosion originated in a residential home in the city of Ontario, California around 12:30pm Tuesday afternoon.
According to Ontario Fire Chief Ray Gayk, who spoke in a press briefing following the incident, the blast killed two people.
The mother of 38-year-old Alex Paez told ABC7 on Wednesday her son and his cousin, 20-year-old Cesar Paez, were the deceased victims.
Gayk recounted around 12:30pm multiple local residents called and notified the department of explosions in their neighborhood.
When fire officials arrived at the scene, the home was still shrouded in flames and additional explosions continued to erupt.
Gayk shared his initial assessment with reporters.
"It was very evident that we had a lot of commercial-grade fireworks that were going off. We don't know right now where they came from [or] what was going on in the house."
Firefighters got to work evacuating nearby residents, people in the home that exploded and even freed a horse from the rubble.
Even with the continued efforts of the firefighters, the flames at the home raged on into the nighttime.
Ontario Police Chief Mike Lorenz also shared although the fire has been put out, there is far more work to still be done in response to the deadly incident.
"Due to the large explosion, it would be at minimum investigating a felony or several felonies that would be involved."
"Depending on what cache of fireworks or explosive material they had in there, we'll direct the investigation where it goes."
People who saw videos of the blast were absolutely stunned.
Some people who live around the site of the blast shared their own experiences.
As Chief Lorenz went on to tell reporters, it will take some time to clear all the rubble from a blast so big.
With summer not far away and home-made fireworks displays ramping up in the coming months, we hope the right precautions are taken to avoid any more catastrophes like this one.
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