'Oh my God': Here's how 911 callers reported the Evansville house explosion

EVANSVILLE – “I think a house just exploded.”

“What makes you think a house just exploded?”

“Because there’s debris everywhere.”

That was an exchange between a 911 caller and a dispatcher seconds after a house on North Weinbach Avenue exploded Wednesday afternoon, killing three people and shattering an entire neighborhood. The names of the victims haven’t been released by officials.

More than 39 homes were damaged, 11 of which will have to be demolished. The epicenter of the blast, 1010 North Weinbach, was destroyed. Investigators have yet to determine what caused the explosion.

More:Live blog: Officials say 11 homes will have to be demolished following explosion

Those who called 911 in the immediate aftermath didn’t know, either. All they knew was they’d just witnessed or heard something they’d never experienced before.

Evansville Vanderburgh Central Dispatch released five of the calls to the Courier & Press. Some of the callers were scared or confused, while others laid out the horrific situation in clear language.

‘Debris flying higher than the trees’

One call came from a mail carrier. He’d just parked his truck at the intersection of Hercules and Bellaire avenues when he heard “an explosion. A big, big explosion.”

“I just saw a bunch of debris flying higher than the trees,” he said. “And it shook my whole mail truck.”

Another caller was even closer. She was just a few houses down from the blast, she told dispatchers.

“Oh my God, a house just blew up on Weinbach,” she said.

The dispatcher then asked her if anyone in the house was home.

“I have no idea. I’m not even getting close,” she said. “It’s bad. Real bad.”

The neighborhood was in tatters Wednesday, with splintered remains of homes flung across the road and first responders searching for victims and beginning the long process of cleaning up.

The Evansville Fire Department, Evansville police, ATF and Indiana State Fire Marshal are all investigating. CenterPoint was called to the scene as well to check for any evidence of a natural gas leak. EFD Chief Mike Connelly wouldn’t speculate on a cause during news conferences Wednesday evening.

People across the city – from Downtown Evansville to the West Side – reported feeling the blast. It rattled the walls of homes and offices, causing residents to run outside, thinking the explosion happened right in their own front yards.

But of course those in the immediate area felt it more than anyone.

“Something just exploded,” one 911 caller said. “Our whole house shook.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How 911 callers reported the Evansville house explosion