While natural gas may not yet have been identified as the cause of an explosion that killed a 77-year-old man and shocked an entire neighborhood near Lake Zurich, a Republican State Senator from McHenry said he would like to see legislation enacted that calls for natural gas leak detectors to be installed in all rental and newly constructed homes in Illinois.
State Sen. Craig Wilcox said the Fuel Gas Detector Act and Senate Bill 1370 he introduced in February of 2023 would require building owners of new construction and rental properties to install at least one fuel gas detector in buildings containing an appliance that is either fueled by propane, natural gas, or liquefied petroleum gas.
“You’ve got a silent killer in your home, so let’s monitor it and protect against it,” Wilcox said Monday. “We have so many examples of home explosions in the state with this latest one in Lake Zurich, the one in Woodstock, and another in Oak Park.”
He said early detection of a natural gas leak in a home through a gas detector could save lives by enabling a mass evacuation before an explosion can take place, especially in multi-family buildings like apartment complexes and condominiums.
“While we can’t say for certain a detector would have prevented these explosions, we can monitor gas leaks by putting a detector in rooms where a gas appliance is located,” he said.
It could take months before investigators determine if natural gas was the cause of an explosion in the 23500 block of North Overhill Drive in unincorporated Lake Zurich that killed 77-year-old Timothy Toczylowski, officials said.Â
Ulises Hernandez told Lake & McHenry County Scanner that Toczylowski was a “friendly person” known by his neighbors as a long-time resident. He lives two doors down from Toczylowski.
Hernandez’s outdoor home surveillance camera captured the moment the house exploded and caught fire at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June. 4.
His children were playing basketball in the driveway when Toczylowski’s house exploded two doors away. The children were not injured.
“I was inside when I heard a loud bang, and it rocked the house,” he told Lake & McHenry County Scanner.
Hernandez is seen on the video footage calling 911.
“It was a definite explosion because the whole house shook,” Hernandez said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Lake Zurich Fire Department arrived at the scene and found the single-story home heavily engulfed in flames, Lake Zurich Fire Chief David Pilgard said.
The fire chief said the explosion leveled the house and damaged two neighboring homes to the north and south.
Nicor was requested to dig up a natural gas line to the house after a gas meter was damaged in the explosion and free-flowing natural gas saturated the area, Pilgard said.
Firefighters eventually fully extinguished the fire at 11:49 p.m. that evening.
The Lake Zurich Fire Department received assistance from fire districts and departments including the Antioch Fire Protection District, Barrington, Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District, Buffalo Grove, Carpentersville, Cary Fire Protection District, Countryside Fire Protection District, Crystal Lake, Deerfield-Bannockburn Fire Protection District, Des Plaines, Fox Lake Fire Protection District, Fox River Grove, Grayslake, Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District, Gurnee, Highland Park, Hoffman Estates, Inverness Fire Protection District, Lake Forest, Lake Villa, Libertyville, Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District, Long Grove Fire Protection District, McHenry Fire Protection District, Mount Prospect, Mundelein, Newport Township Fire Protection District, Northbrook, Nunda, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Richmond, Rolling Meadows, Round Lake, Schaumburg, Spring Grove, Streamwood, Wauconda Fire Protection District, Wheeling and Waukegan.
The fire explosion and accompanying fire remain under investigation.