Police arrest man who crashed into house, caused explosion

VERMILION, Ohio – Police have arrested a man who they say crashed his car into a gas meter and set off a house explosion in Ohio.

Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth says authorities located the 56-year-old man Thursday afternoon in a vacant house about one mile from the explosion in Vermilion.

Sigsworth says the man drove his SUV off the road around 3:30 a.m. Thursday and struck a home’s gas meter, breaking the gas line and causing the home to explode.

The family living in the home was able to escape just before the blast, which knocked a sheriff’s deputy several feet across the yard.

The deputy was hospitalized and released for minor injuries.

Sigsworth says the home “is just devastated.”

The driver is facing multiple charges.