LPG Explosion Buries Alive Bulgarian Family, No One Killed

Firemen and neighbors rescue one of the victims from the remains of her house. Photo by BGNES

A home LPG bottle explosion demolished a family home in the northern Bulgarian town of Vetovo, burying alive 5 members of the family residing there.

Miraculously, no one has been killed, although people trapped in the rubble sustained various fractures.

A 37-year-old mother, together with her 6-year-old and 12-year-old daughters, their grandmother, aged 55, and their grand-grandmother, aged 73, were in the house.

The explosion went off in the kitchen, as the grandmother was preparing to cook, around 9 am Saturday morning, reports Bulgaria's BGNES news agency.

All four of the victims, except the woman in the kitchen, were promptly rescued by neighbors and emergency service officers.

The 55-year-old was released from the trap an hour and a half later, after a complicated rescue operation.

The oldest woman had sustained the most serious fractures, but her life is out of danger. The two kids got away without injuries.

The two-storey house collapsed from the explosion, even though it had undergone repair work over the past summer.

Houses along the street have sustained broken windows from the explosion of the LPG bottle, which had been recently reloaded with gas.

The Vetovo municipality, part of Bulgaria's Ruse region, has vowed to seek out financial assistance for the family.

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