For nearly three hours, smoke could be seen billowing out of a Colonie home from miles away.
Just next door, Glen Boni was there as smoke began filling his neighborhood.
"I went to the door, knocked on the door, opened it, yelled, and I couldn't get in," he said. "There was too much smoke."
Within minutes, he heard a loud boom, and "that's when the whole house erupted into flames," Boni said.
The initial sound was followed by another one, audible to Tom Walker a few houses down Sebring Avenue.
"And there was a third explosion, which wasn't as loud. We didn't know what it was," Walker said. "We went outside and could see smoke pouring outside."
Flames and smoke shot out of windows, the roof and front door. Inside, investigators say, oxygen tanks were exploding.
Neighbors feared an elderly woman, the owner of those oxygen tanks, was inside too.
"It looked bad from the beginning," Walker said. "If someone was inside, they probably couldn't have survived."
Nearly six hours after the fire started, investigators finally were able to get in, pulling a body from the rubble. They haven't identified the victim, only saying one person is unaccounted for. Neighbors, however, fear it was the elderly woman.