Alaska News

VIDEO: 'We were the 1st house to explode' after Alaska earthquake

Four homes burned on the Kenai Peninsula Sunday after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake jolted Southcentral Alaska awake in the early morning hours.

One of the people who lost everything after the earthquake is Vinnie Calderon.

Calderon and his family gathered at the armory with others who had lost their homes or who were evacuated along or near Lilac Lane.

Calderon, his fiancee and two children had just moved into a home on Lilac Lane in Kenai two weeks ago, after previously spending time homeless and couchsurfing.

Working as a tattoo artist, Calderon finally saved up $5,000 to put a payment down on the house.

Sunday morning, a gas leak after the earthquake caused that house to explode not once, but twice, he said.

Immediately after the quake, Calderon said he smelled gas but that the odor went away. Everyone was getting ready to go back to sleep when "the house came a foot up off the ground" he said.

READ MORE: Magnitude-7.1 quake rocks Alaska, damaging roads and displacing residents

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