2 found dead after house explosion, large fire in Oswego, officials say

OSWEGO, Ill. (WLS) — Two people were found dead after firefighters battled a large fire after a house explosion Thursday evening in Oswego.

A suspected gas leak and home explosion in Oswego caused the massive fire that rattled neighboring homes, officials said.

Oswego fire officials said Friday morning two people were found dead.

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Chopper 7 was over the scene of the explosion that happened around 5 p.m. in the 200-block of on Fox Chase Drive, where a home appeared to be mostly destroyed, directly across from Fox Chase Elementary School.

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Neighbors said right before the fire broke out, they heard what sounded like a loud boom. Then they felt their homes shake before seeing a large plume of smoke and fire.

“It was a two-story house, currently all that is standing is the front portion of the garage,” Oswego Fire Chief Joshua Flanders said.

Multiple fire crews battling the flames in the frigid cold into the evening hours.

“We’re bringing in heavy equipment to pull pieces of the house apart so that we can finish extinguishing the fire,” Flanders said. “When we arrived, we found a two-story house that was fully involved in fire and large portions of it collapsed.”

Oswego’s fire chief says fire investigators from Oswego, neighboring communities, the state fire marshal’s office and ATF will be assisting in the investigation.

The chief said Nicor shut off the gas to the home.

While there was minor damage to the two neighboring homes, fire officials say there is no danger to other homes in the area.

No further information was available.