House explosion near Buffalo kills 92-year-old woman

A massive explosion at an upstate New York home Tuesday morning killed a 92-year-old woman and damaged at least seven neighboring houses, according to reports.

The fiery blast in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna leveled the block and left at least one person, identified by authorities as Irene Sanok, dead, WKBW-TV said.

“A war zone,” neighbor Michael Salamone told reporters. “I’ve never been in a war zone, but it looked like a war zone, debris all over.

“We had debris in our backyards, like, other side of the house,” said Salamone, who is also a volunteer firefighter. “There’s debris stuck in windshields.”

Another neighbor called the deadly explosion it “absolutely mind-blowing.”

“I was sleeping in bed and just heard, like, the whole earth move,” Karen Buntich told the Buffalo News. “It really was that bizarre.”

Firefighters responded to the scene on Bedford Avenue shortly before 7:30 a.m. and found a “large debris field,” Lackawanna Fire Department Capt. Gary Strzelczyk said.

Authorities said the cause of the explosion is being investigated by local police and fire officials, with assistance from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and National Fuel.