Mississauga explosion: Police allow some residents to return home

Police investigating the case of a home explosion that shook the entire Mississauga neighbourhood in Ontario, Canada on Tuesday (28 June) has asked some of the residents to return to their homes. One woman was killed and several others sustained injuries in the blast that damaged 25 houses.

A statement released by police on 29 June read: "As of this evening [Wednesday], officials working on site have deemed that some residents can now return to their homes as the perimeter has been further reduced."

Chief of the fire department Tim Beckett said, "Our building inspector is going through to make sure the homes are stable then we have to reconnect gas to the homes and make sure we have the hydro hooked up.

"That will take us into tomorrow and then we will work on a systematic approach to return people back to their homes where we can." However, he added that all the residents will not be allowed to return home for few more days.

"We are in the process right now of working with Peel police and staff from the building department and fire prevention division to ensure those residents get notified on that," he added.

The cause of explosion that occurred on Hickory Drive shortly before 4.30pm is still not known. Jeff Minten, an Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) investigator, said that they are working with Peel Regional Police, but their investigations were not close to the reason of the blast.

"We are on the peripherals working our way in and we are trying to identify any fuel and any potential cause to this incident. That is going to take some time," he said.

According to OFM, locals have found a few pieces of hand-written letters near the site of the explosion and they are investigation whether these pieces are related to the case. "We are still in the initial stages on that but we are pursuing that as well. At this point it is still too early to tell," Police chief Jennifer Evans was quoted as saying.