The Kingston family commemorated Independence Day with a boom, albeit unintentionally.
Luana Kingston was sitting in the living room of her home, 1201 N. 200 West, a few minutes past noon Friday when she heard a loud explosion. Simultaneously, she felt the hardwood floor rise beneath her feet.Her neighbors to the south also felt the concussion.
The preliminary conclusion of fire investigators was that gas vapor accumulating under the basement ceiling from a leak caused the explosion. The gas was possibly ignited by the water heater kicking in.
The explosion resulted in a fire that gutted much of the pioneer-era house, causing up to $100,000 in damage, estimated Bountiful Fire Marshal Michael Barfuss.
Kingston and her six children living at home hustled out of the house and across the street and called 911 immediately after the explosion. No one was injured.
It took 46 firefighters from the Bountiful, South Davis and Farmington fire departments an hour and 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze. The house has many additions, crawl spaces, attics and hollow floors that made it difficult to find and put out all the hot spots.
"We were chasing it from one room to another," said Bountiful fire Capt. Bob Stell. Firefighters were reduced to knocking holes in walls and ceilings to get to all of the burning areas.
The heat and flames spread from the basement up to the first and second floors through heating ducts and the home's plaster-and-lathe walls.
A first-floor apartment on one side of the house sustained most of the damage. Almost everything in the apartment - walls, fixtures, appliances, a doll lying on a couch - was completely black after it was all over.
The apartment's tenants were away at the time.
A neighbor saw an outside basement door blow from its hinges, fly across the driveway and smash into a cinder-block wall during the conflagration. The heat also caused a few .22 gun shells stored near the door to explode.
While damage was extensive to their home, the Kingstons took it in stride.
"All the kids got out OK. That's the main thing," Luana Kingston said. "You can replace things, but you can't replace kids."
"All of our neighbors have been really good, offering to help," said Luana's husband, Joe. He added that insurance should cover most of the damage.
The home was originally built in the late 19th century by Anson Call, an early Bountiful resident. It has been listed on the historic registry.