Neighbors who live on Illinois Street are taking stock after a home in their community was destroyed in an explosion Wednesday.
It’s a neighborhood that remains in shock. The people who live here not only heard the blast, but they felt it.
"It started like, I thought what I heard was a sonic boom," Judy Davin of Rochester said. "And I thought, we had the air show. Originally we thought it was the air show. But then I had an eerie feeling. Because it's a sound you never forget. "
“It just rocked the house so much that I actually just bounced right up onto my feel and I went out and got my cat,” said neighbor Claudia Sherwood. “I saw my storm window fell out of the porch and I thought 'no that didn't scare the cat I know it was an explosion.' I came out and I saw the debris from my porch I was like 'oh my god' and that's when I ran down here with some other neighbors.”
”I don't think our dogs slept or laid down, I think she watched out the window all night, but I'm grateful they're OK as well,” said neighbor Margaret Whelehan.
So many people who lived on and around Illinois Street thought something happened to their house. The closest - felt like they vibrated. Many learned about the blast on social media.
‘I thought a car hit [the house] or lightning because it was [raining] and then I looked. Everything was in the street. There were people running," said Davin.
"I looked and the house was there, and then, it wasn't there. It's crazy. It was like it wasn't there," said another eastside neighbor.
"My heart just breaks for these people. Just breaks. There's an awful lot of damage there," said another eastside neighbor.