Rescuers were scouring the rubble with sniffer dogs throughout the night and operations continued on Wednesday morning. Debris from the two-and-a-half-storey house was scattered around the street.
The house was home to a family of three. The son and father got away with light injuries, but the mother is presumed dead. The body of a woman was found in the rubble, but firefighters were still trying to get to her on Wednesday morning. The operation was made difficult due to the further danger of collapse.
“The situation is very dramatic,” said Simon Heußen, operations manager with the Bochum fire brigade. Initial reports assume that a gas explosion was the cause of the explosion. Even though the building was not connected to the gas network, the fire brigade reported gas levels in several areas around the building.
Gas pipes have been switched off in the area, affecting twelve homes.
Nearly 200 people were on site, including police, firefighters, employees from the public utility company, technical specialists and rescue dog teams.
