Lake County house badly damaged by explosion

A house near Libertyville was badly damaged by an explosion Wednesday afternoon, but no one was hurt, authorities said.

Police were alerted to the blast on the 1700 block of North Sunnyview Road shortly after 2:30 p.m. The house is on a wooded lot in a neighborhood south of Route 137.

Facebook users reported hearing or feeling the blast from miles away. It flattened part of the house, but other portions are intact.

Al Aldridge, who lives a few houses away, said he felt and heard the explosion. He initially thought it might have been an electrical transformer exploding, but he realized his house still had power.

When he went outside to see what happened, he saw his neighbors' house was in pieces. The owners, Aldridge said, weren't home at the time.

Jeremy Chouinard, who lives nearby on Bell Lane, said he also thought a transformer had blown up. He rode his bicycle to the house and arrived before police. He said the house was flattened.

"It looked like one side was blown out," Chouinard said. "There were no char marks, no smoke or signs of fire.

Aisha Bawani, a neighbor who lives one street over on Mulberry Drive, said the explosion was so loud it gave her a headache.

"I could feel the vibration of it in my house," Bawani said.

Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Chris Covelli said there are no reports of injuries, and no other houses in the area were significantly damaged.

Route 137 was temporarily shut down near Sunnyview Road as police officers and firefighters examined the wreckage.

Representatives from North Shore Gas were on the scene.

•Daily Herald Staff Writer Doug Graham contributed to this story.