Grand County, as paged

[jimmnn]

GRAND COUNTY – Firefighters from three departments responded to an explosion at a mobile home about halfway between Granby and Grand Lake on Wednesday night.

The Grand County Sheriff's Department says the home was located six miles north of Granby on Highway 34 in the Lake Granby area.

According to authorities, the fire quickly spread to three other nearby mobile homes and all four were destroyed.

Residents reported hearing large explosions around 7:30 p.m. coming from that area.

There is no word on any injuries, and authorities say it is unknown if any homes were occupied at the time of the explosion and fire.

Highway 34 was shut down from Granby north to mile marker 9 because of the fire.

 

[jimmnn]

GRAND COUNTY – Investigators have found the body of a person killed by an explosion and fire at a mobile home next to Granby Lake on Wednesday night.

The Grand County Sheriff's Department says the home was located six miles north of Granby on Highway 34 in the Lake Granby area.

Sheriff's investigators say the victim was found just before 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. The body had been blown 120 feet by the blast, landing behind an unoccupied home and out of sight of investigators.

Authorities say the victim has not been positively identified yet.

After the explosion, authorities say the fire quickly spread to three other nearby mobile homes and all four were destroyed. Two other nearby homes were damaged.

"The fire spread quickly from one mobile home to the other," said Grand County Undersheriff Walt Eldridge.

A sheriff's deputy was posted at the scene Wednesday night and investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation responded to the scene Thursday morning.

Investigators believe most of the buildings that were destroyed were seasonal and unoccupied. However, one of the homes was a permanent residence. Investigators are unclear if the victim of the explosion lived in that home.

Authorities say they are still looking for the possibility of any other victims.

"Due to the condition of the buildings, we have no idea if any of the buildings were occupied at the time of the explosion," said Eldridge.

April Lang and Ken Hilton say they bought their dream house on Grand Lake just three months ago. They thought they had lost it all on Wednesday night.

"We were just rocked out of our seats with the loudest explosion we've ever heard," said Hilton. "The walls shook and we were pretty sure it was our building that had exploded."

Many neighbors say they heard the explosions around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. People up to seven miles away heard the blasts.

Hilton says the explosion came from the home next door to his.

"I looked and saw debris at least 500 feet in the air," he said.

The home belonging to Shirley Rodriguez and Hermine Hagenstein was also nearby and their window broke from the force of the blast.

"Right away, we went out to check what was going on and we saw lots of things in the air," said Hagenstein.

"We heard this loud boom and our window broke and glass went all over him," said Rodriguez.

The CBI says they are still not sure what caused the explosion.

Highway 34 was shut down from Granby north to mile marker 9 because of the fire on Wednesday night.