A woman was found dead in the rubble of a Charlotte, North Carolina, home that was destroyed Tuesday in an explosion, the city’s fire department said.
Crews found the woman after searching for nearly seven hours in the wreckage of a large home in the Ballantyne neighborhood, Charlotte Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Westover said.
“It was a difficult process to locate her,” Westover said, noting she was found in the downstairs area of the home.
The woman was not identified and authorities wouldn’t confirm whether she lived at the home.
Earlier on Tuesday, a man who was “conscious and alert” was plucked alive from the rubble and taken by helicopter to a hospital, fire officials said.
The man’s condition was unclear Tuesday night.
The home had collapsed due to an explosion at about 2 p.m., fire officials said. It’s unclear what caused the explosion.
More than 80 firefighters responded and searched for hours with “specialized listening equipment and confined space cameras,” the fire department tweeted.
Footage from the scene initially showed flames and smoke coming from a pile a massive pile of debris.
At least two other people from a surrounding home suffered non-life threatening injuries, the Mecklenburg EMS Agency said.
A neighbor, Lorie Porter, had gone for a walk around the neighborhood when the explosion took place.
“I put my Beats on, and I walked right by the house. I walked on, maybe two minutes, and through my Beats, I heard a boom!,” Porter told CNN affiliate WSOC. “And there’s debris right where I had walked, and the house was just leveled.”
