The area of South Gabriel Street from Old County Road to Wolf Street was closed due to the incident.
AUSTIN, Texas — A woman is dead and a man is injured after a house explosion in Granger on Friday morning.
According to Williamson County officials, a call came in at around 9:50 a.m. reporting a house explosion on South Gabriel Street.
Two adults were in the home at the time, an elderly man and a woman. The man was taken to a hospital by helicopter, where he is in critical condition, while the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
There is not much left of the house on South Gabriel Street. Several hours later, smoke still billowed from the burnt rubble. The explosion was so strong that it sent pieces of the house up into the trees.
David Hayes lives about a half mile away, and said he and his wife heard and felt the explosion.
“It shook the house,” Hayes said. “We wondered what it was.”
Hayes’ wife then went on the front porch and saw the black smoke billowing up in the air.
“I came out and looked and we saw that the smoke was billowing about five minutes after it happened,” Hayes said. “Then we saw the fire trucks and everything, and they were coming down the street left and right. There was a bunch of them.”
Hayes was in shock as he drove by and looked at the little but that remained of the house.
“I hope he’s all right,” Hayes said. “Just to lose everything like that in an instant, I couldn’t imagine. That’s been one of my fears my whole life.”
It is currently unclear as to what caused the explosion.
Several crews from Atmos Energy were on scene for hours on Friday. Teams from the natural gas company assessed the debris and looked at the infrastructure and gas hookup to the home.
An Atmos Energy spokesperson told KVUE that their technicians conducted a thorough investigation of the natural gas system and “confirmed that our system is operating normally.”
The company said it will continue to assist the investigation into the cause of the explosion, which the Williamson County Fire Marshal’s Office is leading.
Responding agencies included the Granger Fire Department, Hutto Fire Department, Bartlett Fire Department, Taylor Fire Department, Williamson County EMS, Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, Granger Police Department, Justice of the Peace Pct. 4, death investigators, Williamson County Office of Emergency Management and Fire Marshals from Liberty Hill, Taylor, Jarrell and Cedar Park.
The area of South Gabriel Street from Old County Road to Wolf Street was closed due to the incident, but officials said no other structures in the area were impacted or threatened.