House explosion rattles CFalls, one killed

Officials don't yet know cause of explosion in home at corner of 12th Street and Second Avenue West

By K.J. HASCALL/Hungry Horse News

A house at the corner of 12th Street and Second Avenue West exploded Thursday afternoon. One person was killed.

Around 1 p.m., Columbia Falls Fire Department responded to a gas leak at the home and was on scene when the house blew up around 3 p.m. Four NorthWestern Energy employees were working on the leak at the time of the explosion.

Two of the gas company employees were working on an underground line, while another operated a backhoe near the home and one held a gas sensor. The man holding the sensor was killed.

"Windows were blown out of the surrounding houses," said Columbia Falls Police Chief Dave Perry. "There are parts of the house a quarter mile away."

Pieces of the home's roof and siding lay in the street. The screen door was blown behind the Church of Christ, which faces the home. Billowing smoke filled the air. Inside the charred remains of the house there were periodic explosions caused by ammunition.

The owners of the house, Ted and Myrtle Langton, were not home at the time of the explosion.

Their son Dennis watched the flames from across the street. He was not in the home when it blew up.

"I grew up in that house," he said in a shaking voice, tears in his eyes. "It's a shame. I'm glad (my parents' weren't home."

The Langtons moved into the three-bedroom house in the late 1950s, Dennis said.

"My god, there's more going off," Langton said, reacting to the popping of exploding ammunition. The family reloaded their own shotgun shells. "I couldn't believe it that it just blew up like that. I've never seen anything blow up like that."

Officials have not yet determined the cause of the explosion. Columbia Falls Police Department, Columbia Falls Fire Department, Bad Rock Volunteer Fire Department and Three Rivers EMS responded to the fire. To stop the fire in the basement, officials brought in an excavator to remove debris so that firefighters could douse the flames.

Residents of Columbia Falls felt the explosion blocks away.

"I heard a big boom," said bystander Mark Zenz, who lives about 10 blocks from the destroyed house. "It rattled the windows. We could see the smoke from up there by the Catholic church. I've never seen a house blow up like that except in the movies."