3 hurt in apartment explosion in Van Nuys

All right. Right now, though, we want to get to some breaking news. This is Justin O'Brien and Sky Fox. Here he is with this live picture. This is a apartment building in Van Nuys where there was some sort of an explosion and three people injured. Is that right, Justin? Yes Marla, good afternoon. Just before 10am this morning, a worker was doing some work in one of these apartments. It looked like they're being renovated. We're told that he was inside the bathroom working when there was a flashover according to LA City Fire Public Information Officer. So flashover I think they're referring to as an explosion. You can see the extent of the damage there. Looks like it smashed out a lot of those windows and even knocked down that fence that guards that apartment Marla. Do we know what kind of a worker was working at the time of this explosion? No, we don't know what type of worker, but I would assume it may have been someone doing some work in the bathroom. This building looks like it's being renovated, or at least this apartment, so we would assume possibly tiling. He may have been using an oxyacetylene equipment because... SoCal Gas are out here at the moment. We're seeing some of those workers walk around and they have some technical equipment where it looks like they're trying to see where the gas lines are or they're seeing whether there's any leaking vapor. This, of course, is all happening out at the 14,500 block of Heartland Street, just sort of one block west of Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys. Okay. And the three people who were injured and hospitalized, do we have any idea Do you have any idea the extent of those injuries? No, we have no indication of the extent of their injuries. We heard them say they were transported in an unknown condition. One would just assume that blast injuries could be very, very severe. Absolutely. Pilot Dillon's giving us a bit of an idea, a view from the rear of the apartment building. You can see there is some yellow caution tape there. And this apartment building... People are still living here, so if building and safety did come out and they must have deemed that the apartment building is safe and you can see those SoCal gas workers there, that instrument he's got in his left hand there, looks like it's some type of gas meter, Marla. OK, so we're looking live at Sky Fox's shot here, SoCal Edison out there, just to kind of reiterate what we're looking at here. Three people hospitalized after some sort of a potentially a gas related explosion inside this apartment building in Van Nuys. And it doesn't seem because we're seeing some people out there that this building has been evacuated. No, that's right. According to the LA City Fire public information person, building and safety were being called out here. Just looking around the area on the street, I could not see any of their vehicles. So that may indicate that they've come and gone. Of course, the LA City Fire have also left the scene here. The people you see out on the street, there are members of the media who are following up on this story. Okay. And it's ultimately, do we have any idea how many apartments actually were impacted? I'm unclear at this stage, Marla, but it really appears that it could possibly only be one to two apartments. We've got this ground floor apartment that's got lots of windows smashed out. Plus, it looks like it's the living room area, and the other side looked like a bathroom, a bedroom, I apologise. I thought I could see a bed there. So, this could only be one apartment affected. No doubt a scary afternoon for anyone who was around at that time when the explosion occurred. But I did have a... Brief look at other apartments across the street and adjacent. I didn't see any damage onto those buildings. Okay, well, good. I'm glad that this was the only building impacted. Of course, I'm sorry this happened at all. So for people who are just hopping on, and this all started with some sort of a worker doing some work in a bathroom in one of these apartment buildings or apartments, I should say. An explosion happened. Three people are now hospitalized, an unknown condition. We're working to find out more, and we certainly hope that everyone is going to be okay. We'll follow up. All right, Justin O'Brien, thank you so much. And you're with Dylan today? Yeah, I've got pilot Dylan doing a great job. We've just been down checking out the flooding that's occurring, which Nick will no doubt update you on very soon. And hopefully we'll be able to bring you some more news during your show today, Myla.