Police: 3rd person dies following Nebraska house explosion

OMAHA, Neb. – A third person has died from injuries received in an explosion that levelled a house this week in Omaha, Nebraska, police said Thursday.

Alexander Toledo, 28, died Wednesday at a burn unit in Kansas City, Missouri, police in Omaha said in a news release. Toledo had been found by neighbours severely burned and sitting outside the destroyed home following the Tuesday morning blast.

Toledo’s grandmother, Theresa Toledo, 73, and another woman, Angela Miller, 45, were killed in the explosion. Larry Rodriguez, 72, was critically injured.

Officials have not said what caused the blast, but Theresa Toledo on Monday had asked a judge to order Alexander Toledo out of the home, saying she feared he would “start my house on fire.”

“I need Alex out of my house now before he destroys my house or harms me,” she said in the written request for a protection order, adding that she believed her grandson was using methamphetamines and psychedelic mushrooms.

“He has put holes in the basement walls where he stays, and you can’t even walk in the basement,” she wrote. “He has electronics in the walls and ceiling. I’m afraid he will start my house on fire.”

A judge granted the domestic abuse protection order that same day.