MOUNT DORA, Fla. – One person was airlifted Tuesday night after a possible home explosion in Mount Dora, according to Lake County fire officials.
The incident happened around 10:15 p.m. along W. Main Street.
Cheryl Tavana said she heard what sounded like a bomb going off on Tuesday night at her home in Mount Dora Estates.
“I was sitting over there smoking, and I heard a big noise. I seen stuff coming out of the sky, my neighbor and I walked over, and seen that mess over there,” Tavana said.
She said she saw her neighbor being pulled from the rubble of their home. The resident of the home, Dennis Fox, was taken to the hospital and is recovering in the trauma unit.
“You don’t see people being dug out of the ground every day,” Tavana said. “You see it on the news, but not where you live.”
“To see him buried underneath concrete blocks and rubble, he was completely covered with the concrete blocks. It took a couple guys a good 5-10 minutes just to dig him out from underneath the blocks,” Jeremy Jenkins added.
Jenkins said his partner, Dottie, woke him up when something hit the house. He said that because it was New Year’s Eve, he initially thought it was fireworks.
“Come outside, I see all the debris, but I had not yet looked at the neighbor’s house, but when I did, oh my gosh, I panicked because I knew that he was home,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins lives next door to the home and said he is grateful no one else was hurt.
“I mean, it could have gotten us,” Jenkins said. “I can’t believe it didn’t honestly. It broke one of our windows.”
According to the Lake County Fire Department, firefighters from its agency and the Mount Dora Fire Department were dispatched to the home.
The “cause and exact nature of the incident” are under investigation.
No other information, including the extent of the person’s injuries, has been released.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as we receive it.
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