Oak Forest explosion at apartment building that injured 2 under investigation

OAK FOREST, Ill. (WLS) -- People in Oak Forest are cleaning up after an explosion badly damaged an apartment building.

Investigators have since left the scene of the blast, but there were there all night and into the early morning hours, figuring out exactly what caused an explosion inside one of the apartments.

So far, the only update put out by Oak Forest police still says the dynamite explosion is of unknown origin, but that's not what residents are saying as they point to what they believe are sticks of dynamite found just outside the blast area.

"Everybody is wondering: who keeps dynamite inside their house?" Saul Delagarza, who heard the explosion, said.

"This is a veteran's building," Reggie Odell said. "I'm a veteran, veterans live here and I know a dynamite blast when I hear one. And that's exactly what it was."

While neither police, ATF agents nor the state fire marshal, who all came in on the investigation, would confirm dynamite was behind the blast, Odell, who is a Vietnam veteran, took a picture of what appears to be two sticks of dynamite found in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.

"I looked on the ground and saw something that looked like, you know, toilet tissue rolls. And I looked down and saw fuses hanging outside of them," he said.

Oak Forest city leaders said an unknown explosion just after 7 p.m. Tuesday night inside one a small, single-story apartment sparked a fire on the 5100-block of 160th Street.

"I was just walking out of the bathroom and I heard a loud bang," Delagarza said. "It was an explosion. The first thing I saw when I ran out was smoke coming out of the whole building."

"The punch was so loud. It had my ears ringing. And that's why I thought it was in our own building. I thought it was right here. And then came outside and found out it was next door," said Odell.

Video from inside the unit shows the extent of the blast, holes in the ceiling, insulation ripped from the walls and windows blown out.

Two people, a man and a woman, were also seriously injured. They were taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn for treatment.

"The fire department pulled the people out, the one lady had multiple wounds on her, face completely torn up," Delagarza said. "The gentleman was able to walk, his face was completely torn up."

Federal, state and local investigators are now working together combing through debris and processing evidence in a taped off scene, trying to piece together those moments, leading up to the bang.