CACHE COUNTY, Utah — Residents in the Newton area are still wondering what led to a Cache County home explosion Thursday that killed one of their neighbors and injured two others.
The home of the Mullin's family exploded for unknown causes, killing John Mullin who was found hours later outside the house, and severely burning his wife, Caryn, and son, Joshua.
According to a neighbor, the Mullin's had lived in the home for nearly a decade, working as professional dog breeders. All that is left is debris, rubble and plenty of questions about exactly what happened.
Lamar Clements lives directly next door from the Mullin family and heard the explosion as he was getting ready to have dinner with his wife.
"It was a very loud concussion and I thought it was an earthquake," he recalled. "[My wife] looked right past me and she says, 'My God, Lamar, John's house is on fire,' and I looked out and there were massive flames going up."
That's when Clements went next door to see what he could do to help.
"I could hear [Caryn] down in there or someone asking for help," Clements said.
Cache County firefighters were able to locate Caryn under the debris that was once her home and transported her to the hospital along with Joshua.
Video below shows rescue crews removing a Caryn Mullin from the home (Cache Co. Sheriff's Office)
"It was a horrific scene, the house was totally destroyed," said Clements.
It wasn't until midnight that fire rescue units were able to locate John Mullin's body.
The Cache County Sheriff's Office said 30 dogs were on the Mullins property, in a separate structure, at the time of the explosion, but 16 were inside the home, only five of which were recovered. Of those five dogs, three are in critical condition.
"You get close to people and then something like this happens and it, it just hurts," said neighbor Cheryl Wall.
Another neighbor said they could smell propane near the home after the explosion, But the sheriff's office has yet to release a cause of the fire as the investigation into the incident continues.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the Mullin family.
