Explosion at Northgate Apartment Complex

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - The Pocatello Fire Department responded to the Northgate Apartment Complex around 3:30 Thursday afternoon. 

They found extensive damage to an unfinished building at the complex.

"These type of explosions are extremely rare," said Fire Prevention Captain Dean Bullock. "The cause of this is under investigation, although everything looks like a possible leak in one of the gas lines that was super small." 

But that small gas leak created some big problems.

"You could see that the wall was bowed out, and there was a small amount of smoke coming from the eaves," Bullock said.

Bullock says the timing of the explosion was key to preventing a bigger tragedy..

"We're pretty lucky that nobody was working inside the building at the time," Bullock said. "The explosion was enough to blow out the windows in the apartment here that was involved."

Bullock says this explosion is an isolated incident, but will keep up all their preventive measures.

"Each building goes through a rigorous evaluation and testing," Bullock said. "They're going to be doing some more testing on the gas lines here in this building."