LAGUNA NIGUEL : Blast, Fire Blamed on Leaking Gas

An explosion caused by a gas leak heavily damaged a house and jolted neighbors in a Laguna Niguel neighborhood early Thursday, sending chunks of glass and debris flying 70 feet, authorities said.

There were no injuries, but the explosion sparked a fire that quickly engulfed the house in the 24000 block of Sutton Lane.

Fire officials said the house, valued at about $200,000, was recently sold to Kamrouz Sobouti, 43, who moved in with his family a week ago and immediately left on a camping trip to Yosemite. The Soboutis were expected to return home this week.

“It’s going to be pretty rough for them when they return,” said County Fire Capt. Dan Young, who estimated damage at $150,000. “They’re going to be surprised. . . . This is a very sad incident.”

The explosion came about 5 a.m., awakening residents in the quiet Camden Court development between Marina Hills Drive and Street of the Golden Lantern.

“It sounded like a strong boom,” said Brij Brijlal, 41, who lives about seven houses away. “It felt as if someone was breaking down my door to get inside.”

Maida MacDonald, who also lives nearby, said the explosion “made me jump out of my skin.”

“It was a huge blast, like an earthquake or dynamite going off,” she said. “It shook the entire house.”

Neighbors saw the door of the Soboutis garage completely blown off its hinges and resting on a neighbor’s fence about 70 feet away. The street was littered with glass from windows that were blown out by the explosion.

George Sansom, 39, grabbed his video camera and captured scenes “showing how the frame of the garage was separated from the house and how the garage turned into a fireball after the gas tanks of the cars exploded.”

Some neighbors rushed to get garden hoses to try to douse the flames that engulfed two cars--a Mercedes-Benz and a Honda--in the garage.

Firefighters and Sheriff’s Department officials arrived and evacuated residents from eight nearby houses, Young said.

It took 35 firefighters about 50 minutes to put out the blaze.

Young said the explosion shifted the walls “at least a foot off the foundation. This house has to be rebuilt,” he said.

Fire investigators called out the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad after neighbors reported that they had heard what sounded like “the sounds of gunshots and a bomb” coming from the house. But investigators could not find traces of “any incendiary devices” and it turned out that the “gunshots” were actually the explosions of tires, Young said.

Investigators discovered that the fire began with a gas leak from a central heating system. During the last week, the gas filled the uninhabited house and was apparently ignited by the pilot light in the water heater, Young said.

“Our investigators got on their hands and knees to trace the burn patterns from start to finish,” Young said. “If anyone was in the house, they would not have had any chance of surviving.”