Cicero couple's home destroyed by explosion during wedding ceremony; beloved cats still missing

CICERO, Ill. (WLS) -- The couple whose Cicero home exploded on their wedding day spoke with ABC7 about how they are working to rebuild.

Tom Davis still had his wedding dress shoes on because they are the only shoes he currently owns after leaving his wedding to find out his house exploded on Saturday.

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It happened on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives.

"I was still in my wedding dress, heels, no jacket, just standing and, yeah, just in shock," Eleni Vrettos said.

Vrettos and Davis had just said "I do" when they say their phones started lighting up with calls that their house on Central Avenue was destroyed.

"Our first concern, of course, was our cats. And once we realized that there was nothing we could do, we returned to the reception, where we could at least be around people that loved and cared about us," Davis said.

Davis says their six cats were at home at the time and are still missing.

Cicero police told ABC7 that one person was found dead at the home. Davis says they do not know who that person was.

"It's quite possible that somebody broke and entered," Davis said. "Where do we go from here? And however we may rebuild, we're still without our cats."

Officials say the explosion caused the neighboring building to catch fire, leaving a total of 11 families displaced.

The couple says what now amounts to rubble was supposed to be the home they would start their new lives in.

"We were doing renovations on the house. We were going to make the bottom portion of it commercial and rent it out, perhaps as a storage unit while we lived up top," Davis said.

As the community jumps into help, raising over $28,000 for the couple through a GoFundMe, Vrettos is grieving the very home she grew up in.

"The building belonged to my family for almost 40 years. Yeah, I grew up here, so I live, lived here, and I work in the community. And I mean, Cicero is all I really know," Vrettos said.

Cicero police have yet to identify the victim in this case, and no one has been allowed on the property, because this is still an active investigation.