At around 2:05am on Oct. 15th, a home on the 17,000 block of Sharp Road caught fire and exploded. The married couple inside passed away in the explosion.
Neighbors said they could feel their houses rocking and had things falling off their walls. When one deputy from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office arrived, he said “Look at this, there’s nothing we can do” (WHIO Staff, Oct. 15).
Firefighters arrived shortly after and continued fighting the blaze until morning (Staff Reports, Oct. 15th).
Shelby and Billy Williams were sleeping when the nearby home exploded. They thought that lighting had struck outside their home, but when they looked outside, they said it looked like something out a movie.
“It just spread. It started burning the trees, started on the power lines … it was chaos,” Billy said in a interview with WHIO.
The Willams’ security camera caught the explosion. The Sidney Police Department told WDTN that 2 people, Sherry and Thomas Tracy Jr., died in the explosion along with their 2 dogs.
Assistant Sidney Fire Chief Jason Truesdale said the Sidney Fire Department was the first of six fire departments to arrive on scene. He also said all that was left of the house was the basement and that other homes were damaged (Gronneberg, Oct 15th).
The debris field was larger than 2 football fields, that’s 240 yards.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office believes that the explosion was caused by a propane tank. However, the State Fire Marshal’s Office is still investigating the cause.
Shelby Willams was only 57, and Thomas Tracy Jr. was only 56.
