At least fifteen South Sudanese are suffering life-threatening injuries after an explosion triggered by a gas leak in their family home in Calgary, Canada.
The injured are all adults with six of them reportedly in critical condition.
Aleer Deng is a community advocate and one of the victims who was admitted to the hospital after being admitted with minor injuries.
He said the blast blew up 10 of them into the air before they fell into a fiery basement below. According to him, fifteen more people are still receiving treatment at a hospital.
“If you see the explosion, you wouldn’t believe anybody would come out alive,” Advocate Aleer Deng said while addressing the South Sudanese community in Calgary.
“The cause of the explosion was mainly a gas leak. It was already detected by the tenant and they raised concern to the landlord, and it wasn’t addressed quickly enough.”
The blast has damaged several other homes in the neighborhood after sending off the roof of the house into a yard across the street.
Calgary fire fighters were seen on the scene putting off the fire.
The South Sudanese community there started a GoFundMe social media page to raise $50,000 to help the victims. It so far fund-raised $3,500 as of Sunday.
Another South Sudanese Community member, Gar Gar describes the ordeal of the victims.
“Hearing that today that everybody is almost likely to make it. We are still praying for the three that are still sedated in critical condition to come to the states where they can talk,” he said.
Although the fire department hasn’t released the cause of the explosion, it has ben linked to natural gas.
The chairman of the South Sudanese Community in Calgary Deng Deng Tiordit said one of the victims was a visitor from Brooks, Alta who was awaiting a surgery for his son.
He says the affected families have lost their property in the blast.
“They don’t have clothing, they don’t have phones, and they don’t have shoes. Everybody just ran out from the fire.”
The incident is still under investigation, with all of the victims believed to be members of Calgary’s South Sudanese Community.