Elderly Woman Survives Cinnaminson Home Explosion
CINNAMINSON, N.J. (CBS) -- Cinnaminson Police have now ruled out anything suspicious in the home explosion that injured a 97-year-old woman. PSE&G is looking at a possible gas leak inside the house.
Police, fire and gas company crews continue to sift through charred rubble of what was a two story home on Edgewood lane in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. Around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday night, the home exploded, caught fire and collapsed, sending shock waves through the neighborhood and surrounding communities.
"I thought I got shot," said Laura Rupert, a neighbor. "It was just like the noise, and the impact. I just fell."
Rupert lives just two doors away, her father Ron ran outside to see what happened.
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"My neighbor came running out of the house and said 'help me, take my kids, my house is on fire.' We grabbed the kids and when I looked over her shoulder, we saw the other lady's house on fire and down," said Ron.
Rupert says he smelled gas and saw 97-year-old Marion Sands standing in her crumbling, burning home.
"She was standing, in what was left of the house, holding her dog and on the phone with PSE&G," said Rupert. "She was burned, her hair and all and had a cut on her head, but I just grabbed her and said 'Mrs. Sands, we have to go.'"
The explosion and fire that leveled Sands' home melted one neighbor's siding and blew windows and walls in on the left side of Ryan Horner's home. He says it has been condemned.
"Walls are missing and there are flames and smoke," Horner recalls. "I grabbed my kids and we ran out of here."
He's grateful his three children were watching TV with him on the opposite side of his house, instead of sleeping in their beds.
"One minute they were here and the next minute, I had them next door and I've got great neighbors who took care of them."
Ryan knows how lucky he and his kids are. 
Mrs. Sands is very lucky as well, her neighbors helped her out and she was taken to Cooper University Hospital in stable condition and her dog was taken to the Mount Laurel Animal Hospital.
Reported By Robin Rieger, CBS 3
