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'It's a disaster': Investigation ongoing in house explosion

Robert C. Reed | Hickory Daily Record

Insurance adjuster William R. Cutler confers Monday with home owner Steve Bryant as they walk through Bryant’s home, which exploded early Sunday.

Details

According to Catawba County tax records, the total value of the buildings and property is $453,400. The house is valued at $319,500.

Recommended by William Cutler, independent insurance adjuster

• Everyone should have a fire plan, in case their house catches on fire.

• Take pictures of your home, inside and out, photographing everything. Don’t be afraid to take 200 photos or more.

• Burn the photos to a CD, and store that CD away from your home. Cutler suggests in your desk at work.

• Update your photos every five years, because your home or contents will likely change by then. If you do have a fire, you’ll have a starting point for the insurance adjuster.

“No one thinks it can happen to them,” Cutler said.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 27, 2009

HICKORY - More than a day after an explosion nearly leveled a three-story home on Lake Hickory, the acrid smell of smoke still wafts up to the road 50 yards away.

A steady stream of passersby drives by the home looking at the damage.

"It's a disaster," Michael Fulbright said Monday.

He said it was hard to see this happen to someone's home.

The Catawba County Fire Marshal's office has released little information about what might have caused the explosion early Sunday.

Little of the house on 54th Avenue, NE, still stands. The explosion at 3:30 a.m., which woke neighbors across the lake but not those across the street, left the brick frame surrounding the two-car garage ... but not the garage itself. One of the garage doors sits crumpled under the frame, which still has an outdoor light fixture attached to it. On the far left side of the house stands one brick support column, with a nearby palm plant it protected. Nearly everything else used to build the house or in the house was destroyed in the blast that the fire marshal's office, State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) are investigating.

"We've requested the SBI and the ATF because of the extent of the damage," said Mark Pettit, fire marshal. "The ATF has a degree of expertise in explosions."

The owner of the home got a good look at his house Monday afternoon as he walked around with his insurance adjuster and two grown children.

William Cutler is the insurance adjuster for the property. He said the homeowner, Steve Bryant, was at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Charlotte. Cutler said Bryant left Saturday morning and spent the night in Charlotte.

Cutler and Bryant spent more than two hours at the home, surveying the property.

"What the explosion didn't kill, the fire did," Cutler said. "We didn't find any personal items."

Pettit was unwilling to comment on what could cause an explosion that could flatten a home.

"At this point, we haven't determined anything," he said.

There is a 100-gallon propane tank on the property near the garage.

Diane and Bob Christensen live just around the cove from Bryant.

Bob woke up Sunday morning shortly before 4 a.m. when he heard the sirens through his open bedroom window. He's lost two people in house fires, and knows first-hand the devastation it causes.

On Monday, the Christensens and their two children took a bike ride onto 54th Avenue, NE.

"This happened to me a couple of times in my life, so I can't imagine this happening to anyone else," Bob said. "Can you imagine losing everything?"

Diane said she was sad to see the house was destroyed.

"It was an absolutely beautiful home," she said. "But we're glad everyone's OK. At least no one was home at the time."