MONTREAL (AFP) — Blasts and a huge fire at a north Toronto propane depot shattered windows in nearby homes and forced evacuations Sunday, but there were no deaths or serious injuries reported, officials said.
Thousands of residents within 1.6 kilometers (one mile) of the depot were evacuated from their homes by buses to a local military base and the busy highway 401 was shut down, the officials said in a press conference.
"There are some people with minor injuries so far and there is at least one person unaccounted for," firefighting service official Bob O'Hallarn said, adding that the person was not yet considered to be missing.
Video footage from a local resident shown on television showed a huge orange ball of fire under a massive cloud of smoke.
"It was just a tremendous explosion and blew all the windows out of the house, just blew the house up, and I just managed to get out of there in time," Robert Helman told CTV.
Two tanker trucks were destroyed in the fire, the cause of which remains unknown, they said.
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