A mobile home exploded in Chesterfield

Chesterfield Township — Contractors working on a mobile home deck hit a natural gas line in Chesterfield Township Friday morning, causing an explosion that destroyed the home and sent large plumes of smoke into the air.

The explosion happened at 10:50 a.m. near the intersection of Jamestown Drive and Georgetown Drive within the Carriage Way housing community, which is bounded by Interstate 94 and 24 Mile Road.

According to Chesterfield police, contractors were working in a backyard with an excavator when they broke an underground natural gas line. No one was hurt.

Firefighters from multiple agencies including Chesterfield Township, New Baltimore, Baltimore, Macomb Township, New Haven and the Selfridge National Guard worked to extinguish the blaze. Crews from DTE Energy and SEMCO Energy were also on scene.

Several neighbors gathered near the scene of the fire to watch as fire crews worked. Ayman Ali said that the explosion woke him up.

“I thought I was going back to Iraq,” Ali, 33, said. “My neighbor’s wife said it knocked some pictures off the wall.”

Ali said that he does not know the people living in the trailer well, but he has seen them around.

“I heard she took them to the park in the morning and they were coming back when this happened,” she said. “Thank God.”

Neighbors said that parents and a child lived there with a dog.

Chesterfield Police said the home is a total loss.