Neighbors near deadly home explosion offer their initial reactions of fear and confusion
By Madison Rios
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TOWN OF SPRINGFIELD, Wisconsin (WKOW) — Neighbors near a deadly home explosion in the Town of Springfield say they were initially confused and then fearful.
Josef Anderegg has lived next door to the home his entire life. Anderegg says, he felt the rumble start at one end of his house and go through the rest.
“We thought a tree hit the house or something, from the bad storms,” Anderegg said. “It took about 20 minutes for us to see that there’s embers everywhere in the woods, so we called 911 immediately.”
After calling 911, Anderegg ran out of his home and towards the site of the explosion to check on his neighbors. He says, he was ‘hoping for a miracle.’ As he ran towards the home, something stopped him right in his tracks.
“The heat just stopped you,” Anderegg said. “You couldn’t get close. And then the explosions, too, it was definitely like bullets were exploding.”
This sound was confirmed by officials, who say the home did have a large amount of ammunition. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett says, once the heat from the initial explosion met the ammunition, it caused the ammunition to go off, sounding like gunfire.
Aron Shelton, the neighbor on the other side of the explosion site, actually caught the explosion on his Ring Doorbell camera. Shelton says, he woke up to police at his door, who told him he needed to get out of his house.
“We got up, got out here, saw what was going on, and took a look at what was in the Ring Doorbell,” Shelton said.
Shelton adds, he didn’t have much time to react, because police wanted to ensure he was safe and away from the explosion.
“By the time I’m getting up, and getting outside, the police were here, the sheriffs were here, they’re saying ‘you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go,'” Shelton said. “I was totally shocked when I got to the end of my driveway.”
Shelton tells 27 News, the two people who lived in the home were a couple. He adds, they lived there for around 40 years.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the explosion. Agencies will not release the names of those who died until family members have been notified.
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