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Explosion Rocks Motel With Long-Term Residents

By Melissa Garcia

LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) - A community of families is feeling grateful to be alive after an explosion blew the roof off of a motel in Loveland.

Doors and windows were boarded up where flames tore through the Rosebud Motel on Eisenhower Boulevard and Monroe Street Saturday night.

Loveland Motel Explosion 5 (Loveland Fire Rescue on FB)
(credit: Loveland Fire Rescue)

Yellow danger signs were posted on doors along the South side of the building alerting residents that its interior is not safe to enter.

Some residents started smelling propane shortly before 7 p.m. and then heard a loud explosion that almost knocked them off their feet.

Loveland Motel Explosion 4 (Loveland Fire Rescue on FB)
(credit: Loveland Fire Rescue)

"I heard a big boom. I saw the door fly off, and the roof fly off," explained Michelle Carrier, a motel resident.

Carrier and her six children have been living in the motel for several weeks. They were surprised when something suddenly exploded nearby inside room No. 6.

Loveland Motel Explosion 3 (Loveland Fire Rescue on FB)
(credit: Loveland Fire Rescue)

"I was just like standing there in shock, like, 'Oh my God, his room just fricken' blew up,'" Carrier said in an interview with CBS4's Melissa Garcia.

"It sounded like a bomb went off," said Ally Palmer, who was also at the motel when she heard the boom.

Loveland Motel Explosion 2 (atchison)
(credit: Loveland Fire Rescue)

Paramedics rushed the man in his 40s who had been living in Unit 6 to the hospital. He was one of five people injured in the blaze.

Flames shot out the roof and through the windows, sending debris, glass, and even the front door flying toward Sylvia DavisLaRose, who was sweeping outside.

"Thank God that the truck was there or else it would have hurt me really bad," DavisLaRose said.

Loveland Motel Explosion 1 (atchison)
(credit: Loveland Fire Rescue)

Loveland firefighters, who were already at the motel for a medical call, sprang into action as thick smoke poured from the motel. They extinguished the blaze, leaving smoke-damaged belongings in a pile outside the burned unit.

"Actually, when we were cleaning up, we found drug paraphernalia and stuff," said Carrier. "And that upsets me because that's why I uprooted my family and moved here from Minnesota -- to get them away from that stuff. And then here come to find, it's right across the driveway from us."

Loveland Motel Explosion 5 (Loveland Fire Rescue on FB)
(credit: CBS)

The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Red Cross volunteers said that eight people were displaced, including two children.

Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.

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