Official: Liquid accelerant used to start fatal Port Washington house explosion

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (WABC) -- Fire officials in Port Washington say that a "liquid accelerant" was used in Tuesday night's fatal house explosion.

Police officials also confirm there was a 911 call at 8:16 p.m., moments before the blast. A mother and her 2-year old daughter were waiting outside in the driveway and whisked away just in time, after people smelled gasoline.

Neighbors Wednesday pointed out their concern about a Facebook post from December 2013 from the man killed in the blast. It showed a photo of propane tanks in his car, saying "..if you're going to go out with a bang, might as well do it with 25 gallons of gas and 40 pounds of propane."

Twenty fire departments responded to the home on Prospect Avenue in Port Washington after reports of the blast poured in around 8:30 p.m. Now, Nassau County bomb and police squads are trying to determine the events that led to the deadly tragedy that sent a fireball up into the night sky.

"We have two garages and a home totally destroyed," said Chris Bollerman, with the Nassau County Fire Department. "We have damage to two other adjoining structures, as well as we have recovered the remains of what appears to be a human being."

A body of a yet to be identified person was discovered inside the garage; four firefighters and one Port Washington Police officer suffered minor injuries. The massive explosion shook the entire neighborhood and summoned more than 150 firefighters from across Long Island.

When police and fire officials arrived, they found the 39-year-old woman and her 2-year-old outside.

"There was an odor of gasoline when they pulled up," Nassau County Detective Lt. Gary Shapiro said. "As the other officers started to arrive and they started to evacuate her, an explosion occurred."

The woman was back at the scene Wednesday, surveying the damage in her backyard.

Residents in the neighborhood were horrified, but relieved the blast didn't take more lives or do more damage.

"There were flames shooting, I would say, 50 feet into the air. I've never seen anything like it, like something out of a Hollywood movie. It wasn't like an ordinary house fire," said resident Nancy Costenoble.

Neighbors were left to wonder if the man had been pondering this for some time.

"Who knows what the pressures on someone's life is, to make you take such a violent way to go out, too, not just a simple suicide," said resident Jan Jamshidi.

Here is more raw video of the flames, courtesy the Port Washington News:

The fire quickly spread to a second garage, then to a string of cars and neighboring home.

An eyewitness who shot video on his cell phone said everything seemed to happen at once. "Just flames instantly all the way up," he said. "So it was an instant fireball. It didn't build or anything like that."

The house is not visible from the street, but NewsCopter7 was able to get a bird's eye view of the devastation.

Additionally, pictures and videos sent in to Eyewitness News on Twitter show a large fireball and smoke billowing from the house.

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