There's an important law-enforcement purpose for police dashboard cameras, but they also capture unexpected sights — like on Tuesday, the natural gas explosion that made a house in Stafford Township, New Jersey, disappear in a ball of flame and shooting debris. Luckily, the house was unoccupied for renovations. Unluckily, 15 firefighters and gas company employees looking for the leak were injured in the blast, two of them critically.
"It happened so quickly, the explosion, debris all around us coming from nowhere," Stafford Township Fire Chief Jack Johnson tells The Associated Press. "It knocked you off your feet, a shock wave, the concussion of it. It's something I never want to experience again." Some 300 homes in the Jersey Shore town were without gas on Tuesday night, and some were also without electricity. —Peter Weber
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