BOERNE, Texas – Investigators with the State Fire Marshal's Office will continue to search for clues at the site of a explosion at a home in Boerne Tuesday afternoon.
The home in the 200 block of Horse Hill, in the Herff Ranch Subdivision, exploded around noon, critically injuring a man inside and heavily damaging surrounding homes.
The explosion leveled one home and rained debris down on the two homes next to it before a fire caused even more damage.
Neighbors recall feeling impact from the blast and rushing to help their injured neighbor, identified as Scott Kenney, 45, who remains in critical condition at San Antonio Military Medical Center, the Boerne Star reported.
Yukiko Wartian, who lives in the home behind the one that exploded, she said she was eating lunch when she felt the blast.
"Suddenly some hot air come to me and boom, and I didn't know what's going on," Wartian recalled.
As she stepped outside to investigate, she saw Kenney's home collapse and seconds later saw the homeowner come stumbling out, badly injured.
Sarah Miller, another neighbor who lives behind the home, rushed to help Kenney.
"I think that nobody knew exactly how to help him," Miller said. "The only thing you can think to do in a situation like that is run for your first aid kit, so I just grabbed every first aid kit in my house and there was a policeman who requested some clean towels so I grabbed those and by the time I was able to deliver all of that, they were asking us to evacuate so we kind of got out of the way."
Miller was inside her home with her son when she felt the blast rock her home.
"I was actually physically moved from where I was sitting, and things in my house shook and my whole house moved, things fell down off shelves so it was almost like an earthquake," Miller said.
When he finally arrived home, Wayne Wartian said he was surprised his home was still standing and that his wife didn't have a scratch on her.
"Where she was facing was towards the explosion and had that fence not been there, I'm sure that window would have been all on her. She would have been all cut up real bad so she's very lucky," Wayne Wartian said.
The State Fire Marshal's Office is leading the investigation. Investigators did an initial probe of the scene Tuesday evening but planned to return to the site Wednesday to continue their work.