Some of the largest reactions to an explosion that shook an East Campus neighborhood came from people who were at work, away from their homes or returning home for lunch.  Many neighbors even shot videos of the flames just minutes after the home exploded.

"I could hear the flames from my front door three houses down, it was immediately engulfed," said Scott McGarvey, a neighbor. "It was the loudest noise I've ever heard; it scared me to death."

Just after the home exploded, a neighbor who lives just a few houses down took out his camera and captured these moments.

"I was getting stuff out of my closet, and it felt like the whole house shook off its foundation," he said.

The neighborhood, which neighbors Boone Hospital isn't unfamiliar to lots of noise.

"We hear helicopters going to Boone Hospital on the time, nothing of this nature," McGarvey said.

Another neighbor described her reaction as "absolute shock," and wondered if the house that erupted in flames was hers.

"The first time anything of this sort has happened since I've been here, which is seven years," said Jill Raitt.

Hours later when neighbors learned that someone had died in the explosion, they began to realize exactly how horrific the blast was. As more investigators arrived and the flames died down, the neighborhood struggled to find a way to move on.

"Bad enough to have a house destroyed, but people destroyed is a whole other level of awful," Raitt said.