{"id":804190,"date":"2026-07-15T20:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804190\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:23:16","slug":"he-told-911-that-a-car-had-crashed-into-his-buildings-gas-line-then-it-exploded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804190\/","title":{"rendered":"He told 911 that a car had crashed into his building’s gas line. Then it exploded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

After seeing a vehicle crash into the north Edmonton apartment building where he lived Randolph Pattemore called 911 to report the smell of gas and his worry that there would be an explosion.<\/p>\n

And then there was. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the window go out and then all of a sudden it was like a freight train just came flying right back in,\u201d Pattemore said Tuesday in an interview with CBC News. <\/p>\n

Pattemore and his roommate Matty Poburan were staying at Poburan\u2019s mother\u2019s house, after the Monday night explosion and fire destroyed the three-storey building where they lived at 132nd Avenue and 82nd Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost everything I had,\u201d said Pattemore.\u00a0 \u201cWhat I’ve got right now, it’s all I’ve got. Even lost my ID, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police say an 85-year-old man died when he jumped from a third-floor balcony trying to escape the blaze. Six people were sent to hospital and two residents were still unaccounted for on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

The 62-year-old man who was driving the vehicle that hit the building was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Explosion caused by gas line rupture leads to fatal fire in north Edmonton:\"\"<\/p>\n

Explosion caused by gas line rupture leads to fatal fire in north Edmonton<\/p>\n

Firefighters were called to a north Edmonton apartment building Monday night after it caught fire following an explosion. One person is confirmed dead while two people remain unaccounted for. As CBC\u2019s Sam Brooks reports, the incident began with a vehicle colliding with a gas line and it has displaced 35 residents.<\/p>\n

Pattemore said he saw the car collide with the building\u2019s gas line. \u201cThe smell of the gas [was] real strong,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fearing an explosion, Pattemore raced back upstairs to grab his phone and alert Poburan and a friend who were still in the apartment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my roommate we need to get out of here now,\u201d he said, adding that he then went into the living room and dialled 911.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMatty Poburan speaks with CBC following a devastating apartment fire on the evening of July 13 that destroyed his home and resulted in the the death of his mothers two dogs. (Sam Brooks)<\/p>\n

Poburan said he and his friend were just about to leave the apartment when the explosion occurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re making our way to the door and next thing you know we’re about three feet in the air \u2014\u00a0glass is flying everywhere. Just total chaos,\u201d he said..\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poburan said he was \u201camazed\u201d by the level of debris and damage to the stairwell as he evacuated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the plywood off the walls were just like blown out,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just see the bare beams sticking out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you kind of got an idea at that point that you don’t got much time and we need to get everyone out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreeEdmonton police told CBC News the silver car on the far right is the vehicle that collided with the building, starting the fire. (Sam Brooks)<\/p>\n

Poburan and Pattemore made it out of the apartment building safely, with some minor injuries.<\/p>\n

However, the two dogs that Poburan was looking after for his mother did not survive. Pattemore said the two golden labradoodles jumped toward a window when the explosion happen, in an apparent attempt to escape.<\/p>\n

Pattemore said he was still on the phone with 911 and struggling to breathe when he saw the man who drove the vehicle that hit the building. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got told by the 911 operator, \u2018Just walk away, just catch your breath.\u2019 And I did,\u201d said Pattemore. \u201cAnd I watched that building burn and those two dogs just \u2026 gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poburan, who noted he was still feeling \u201cworse for wear,\u201d said navigating the aftermath of the fire has been confusing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t exactly have like a little pamphlet [that says], \u2018So your place of living just exploded. Here’s what you do next,\u2019\u201d said Poburan, adding that he\u2019s been trying to figure out which agencies to go to and where to go from here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a news conference Tuesday , EPS Chief Warren Driechel said due to the complexity and scale of the incident, police launched its mass casualty investigative protocol, meaning the fire is now being investigated by Edmonton police’s homicide unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Driechel said it may take over 48 hours for investigators to gain access to the inside of the apartment building to begin investigating due to the instability of the structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A two-block section of 82nd Street will likely remain closed for approximately the same length of time, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-804190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}