About 25 homes were damaged by a house explosion on Hickory Dr. Residents in Mississauga, Toronto, Canada on Tuesday.
Local residents described the scene as looking like “the aftermath of a hurricane.” As one resident simply put it, it looked like a “war zone.”

Residents on a quiet Mississauga street were thrown into shock and confusion on Tuesday afternoon after an explosion at a house on Hickory Dr. that killed one person, wiped out three homes and caused moderate damage to six to eight others.

Although the cause remains under investigation, authorities confirmed that one person had died and nine others assessed for minor injuries. Firefighters were conducting a search and rescue operation Tuesday evening.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said about 50 to 100 people had been taken to a nearby reception centre.
A gas leak in a home may occur due to aging infrastructure or incorrect insulation, a natural gas expert said.

“Aside from corrosion, aging infrastructure, something as small has setting up a fence and hitting a pipe could cause a gas leak,” said Mark McDonald, president of Boston-based NatGas Consulting.
According to McDonald, home explosions like the one in Mississauga could have been caused either by an undetected gas leak or a meth lab. If it is a gas leak, it is considered a "high-level explosion" because an entire home was leveled and many neighboring homes were affected.