Over 100 firefighters from several surrounding departments rushed to the scene when an explosion was reported shortly before 2am on Spruce Street in Colonie early Monday morning.


Crews were able to get the blaze under control by about 3am, a welding shop on the street was completely destroyed.

The owner of the shop told News 10 that the building is about 70 years old and is used to repair cars.

In addition to the welding shop, there were several other fires at surrounding buildings caused by the explosion. A few homes close by were damaged. The bright side is, miraculously, there were no injuries or deaths.

Adding some difficulty to the situation, firefighters had to deal with a busted water main along the street, which caused some problems getting water to put the flames out. Crews had to use a fire hydrant about a quarter mile away from the scene in order to get enough water to fight the blaze. As of 5:30am, there were still a few hot spots they were working on.

There were also reports of downed power lines in the area, for safety reasons, National Grid has shut power off to that part of the street.

No word on the cause of the explosion. Fire crews say they'll likely be on the scene for at least the rest of the day to try and figure it out. Officials from the Department of Public Works will be working on restoring water, while National Grid works to restore power.

[Times Union] [NewsChannel 13] [CBS 6]

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