Police Called to NYC Home That Promptly Explodes

A middle-of-the-night domestic call in Queens ended with a house blowing up, CBS News reports. NYPD bodycam footage released Thursday shows officers stepping up to the front door of a South Richmond Hill home just before a fireball erupts, knocking several of them off their feet and sending glass flying into the street. At least seven officers and multiple residents were injured; all the officers are expected to recover. A body believed to be that of the suspect, 50-year-old Anoop Parasram, was later found in the rubble. Parasram is the estranged husband of a woman who lived at the address, ABC 7 reports.

Police say the chain of events began around 3am, when a family member reported smelling gas and said Parasram, allegedly drunk and armed with a knife, had forced his way in through a basement window. His daughter and two grandchildren fled, and his wife escaped after being threatened, officials said. About 15 minutes after the 911 call, the explosion triggered a five-alarm fire that engulfed the house and damaged neighboring homes, displacing more than a dozen people. Parasram had three expired protective orders against him, all filed by a resident of the home, and there was a history of police calls to the home, NBC New York reports. The cause of the blast remains under investigation, but officials believe Parasram set himself on fire and the blaze was gas-fed.