DESTIN — A massive car explosion outside a vacation home Saturday night killed one man from Illinois and critically injured another.
The blast shortly after 7 p.m. blew off the garage door of the home at 704 Harbor Lane and sent hunks of metal and plastic soaring through the neighborhood.
The incident appears to be a “freak and tragic accident,” Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley said.
Michael Todd Brower, 35, died at the scene. His friend, Luis Lopez, a 58-year-old Illinois pediatrician who owns the home, was rushed to the hospital where he was in critical condition Sunday. Both men are from the Benton, Ill., area southeast of St. Louis.
Investigators were gathering debris Sunday that was strewn through the neighborhood, including some that had lodged in a nearby tree. Pieces of metal had been thrown all the way into adjacent streets.
The cause of the explosion was thought to be related to acetylene torches that were rented to do work on the house, Ashley said. The gas is usually used for welding or soldering.
There was no indication of foul play, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
A third man, a relative of Brower’s, was at the scene, but was uninjured.
Neighbors said the men appeared to have arrived home with their boat shortly before the explosion.
The sound of the blast was deafening. Neighbors reported that they felt the walls of their own homes shake. When firefighters and paramedics arrived, they found the SUV with blue flames shooting out of the middle.
The blast from the explosion caused about $100,000 in damage to the garage and some of the interior of the house, said Battalion Chief Bronson Coleman with the Destin Fire Department. There was no fire damage to the four-bedroom 3,000-square foot home.
The SUV was destroyed at an estimated cost of $40,000, Coleman said. The boat parked next to the vehicle also was burned and suffered about $40,000 in damage.
Lopez, who is the lead physician at the Heartland Pediatric Clinic in Marion, Ill., bought the vacation home in 2012 along with Kelly Brandon-Lopez, according to property records.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the incident.
Devon Ravine, Wendy Victora and Lauren Delgado with the Daily News contributed to this report.