No injuries in early morning garage explosion in Sultan

No one was injured in the home that exploded in Sultan early Thursday morning.

A woman had been sleeping at the time the garage blew up; just before 6 a.m. Sultan Fire Chief Merlin Halverson said one full end of the structure was destroyed.

Two children live at the residence part-time, but no one else was in the home at that point, he said. A man had left the house to go to work 10-20 minutes before the explosion happened, Halverson said.

“I would say they were more than surprised,” he said.

The woman woke up and tried to leave, but the front door was blocked, Halverson said. She was forced to go out the back entrance. When she got outside she saw the whole end of the house had collapsed and was up in flames, he said.

Halverson said the neighbor's home had also caught on fire. The adjacent building did not receive enough damage to make it unlivable, he said.

Nearly 20 firefighters, including two chiefs, responded to the call, Halverson said. Fire District 7 and Fire District 26 sent out trucks and crewmembers to aid Sultan's responders, he said.

Halverson is still waiting to hear what the cause of the explosion was. It could have been a gas explosion. There were two recently filled propane tanks in the garage at the time, he said.