Seaside Heights home destroyed in gas explosion

A gas explosion destroyed a home in Seaside Heights Saturday morning. The blast blew out the lower level of the Sumner Avenue house at around 10 a.m. Gas service was shut off at the affected home,

News 12 Staff

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Mar 16, 2015, 2:15 AM

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Updated 3,568 days ago

A gas explosion destroyed a home in Seaside Heights Saturday morning.

The blast blew out the lower level of the Sumner Avenue house at around 10 a.m. Gas service was shut off at the affected home, which will reportedly be condemned.

Two neighboring houses were evacuated as a precaution.

An employee from New Jersey Natural Gas says their investigation shows the blast was probably caused by a mistake from an outside contractor who left a line open while doing work.

Nobody lived in the downstairs apartment where the contractor was working, but a 26-year-old renter was upstairs in bed at the time of the blast.

"I literally felt like I was on a trampoline, like something had lifted me from down below," said Jesse Panza McGinness. "I'm a little burned on my back and foot."

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation.