One person was found dead following an explosion that leveled a home in Gurnee on Friday, sheriff’s officials said.
At around 6:05 p.m. on Friday, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Gurnee Fire Department, along with other fire departments, were dispatched to a house explosion in the 36400 block of Streamwood Drive in unincorporated Gurnee.
When first responders arrived the entire house was leveled and fully involved in fire.
It took crews almost two and a half hours to extinguish the fire because of an active gas leak from a ruptured natural gas line. Shortly after the fire was extinguished there was a body located inside the debris of the residence, officials said.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office and State Fire Marshals were called to the scene.
Authorities said that six other houses were damaged by debris from the explosion. A female occupant of one of the houses sustained a minor injury from falling debris inside her residence, sheriff’s officials said. She was treated and released at the scene.
Several people had reported to Lake and McHenry County Scanner that they felt the explosion from several miles away.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation by the State Fire Marshal. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 847-549-5200.