MICHAEL SANGIACOMO
Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

An early morning explosion and fire in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood injured a woman, forced 12 people out of their homes and destroyed a building and damaged four others.

Caroline Davis suffered burns to her head, face and hands in the fire and hurt herself when she jumped from her second-floor unit in a two-family house on Jefferson Avenue. She landed on a spiked, wrought-iron fence. She was in fair condition Tuesday afternoon at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Cleveland Fire Department officials had not determined the cause of the explosion. Officials are trying to determine if there was a gas leak in the home because of the type of explosion and a report that a neighbor smelled gas hours before the blast. A spokesman for Dominion Gas said their investigators are working with the Fire Department.

The explosion occurred about 3:30 a.m. when Davis lit a cigarette in her apartment, said fire spokesman Larry Gray. The explosion and fire gutted the house and caused heavy fire damage to buildings on either side of it, including the popular restaurant and deli, La Bodega. None of the residents of the two apartments above La Bodega were injured. Also, two houses in the rear of Davis' home had minor damage, Gray said.

Kenneth Diaz, 31, who lives in the unit below Davis with his wife, Glenda Liz Cintron, 28, and their sons, Kenneth, 12, Keniel, 10, and Kelvin, 7, stood staring at the charred remains of his home Tuesday morning.

Speaking through a translator, Diaz said he smelled gas about 8 p.m. Monday but could not find the source. He said he was up at 3 a.m. making coffee when an explosion blew out his wall. He grabbed his sleeping children and pulled them to safety. "I thought the world might end," Diaz said. "I started crying. I was scared."

Outside, Diaz heard his upstairs neighbor screaming for help. He told her to jump and tried to catch her. But the woman landed on the fence in front of the building.

Steve Stanaszek and Julie Woyma live next door. They were home when their house caught fire. They got their frightened Chihuahua out of the house but little else. "I heard a small explosion and then the sound of bricks hitting my car," he said. "The bricks from the chimney next door were flying all over."

Matt Martin, 31, who has lived in the apartment above Stanaszek for about a month, was asleep at the time of the explosion. "I woke up to the sound of something crashing," he said. "I came out on my porch and my neighbor was screaming, 'Help me! Help me!' Somebody was saying, 'Jump, jump!' I went downstairs to tell her to jump, but she'd already jumped to someone else."

Margaret Horne, who has lived in the neighborhood for the past 40 years, was grateful the fire didn't spread further. "Thank God there was no wind," she said. "It could have been so much worse."

Plain Dealer Reporter Cliff Pinkard contributed to this story.

Copyright 2009 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
June 17, 2009