By BARRY W. WALKER

Citizen Staff Writer

Kathy and Fran Cook stand in silent awe Sunday as they gaze at the charred remains of a neighbor’s home which exploded late Saturday evening in Krainewood Estates in Moultonboro. (Citizen Photo/E. Matthew Hayes)

A second explosion in less that 24 hours rocked Moultonboro Sunday afternoon. Firefighters are investigating what caused the explosion at a home on Long Island. (Citizen Photo/E. Matthew Hayes)

MOULTONBORO — Two explosions within 24 hours of each other destroyed one Winnipesaukee lakefront home and badly damaged another.

As of Sunday evening police and fire officials were still not releasing the names of the family whose home at 207 Hanson Drive on Ash Cove exploded Saturday evening, killing their young daughter and sending the rest of the family to local hospitals.

Moultonboro Police Chief Scott Kinmond said late Saturday night Lakes Region dispatch received numerous calls from residents of the Cranwood Shores area reporting multiple explosions around 9:47 p.m.

Jeff De Cormier, who lives at 9 Krainewood Drive near the entrance of the development said the blast shook his house "like an earthquake." He said he looked out and saw a red glow over the treetops toward the cove, but that it quickly died down again.

A state Fire Marshal’s Office statement released to the media Sunday stated, "the explosion and fire was caused by the ignition of liquefied petroleum gas," commonly known as propane. They are as yet unable to say what caused the ignition.

Kinmond said the house was demolished. Its walls were blown outward and parts of the structure were strewn three houses away and found their way to the beach across Ash Cove.

He said the two-story house was a "second home" occupied by a husband and wife, the parents of one of them and the couple’s three children. He would not say who owned the house, but said the four adults and two of the children were transported to local hospitals by nearly every available ambulance in the area, including Ashland, Stewart’s Ambulance and Medstar EMS. They were suffering from a variety cuts, bruises and at least one broken bone, but he could not confirm whether any had been burned. One unidentified adult remained in a hospital Sunday evening with unknown injuries.

The third and youngest child, believed to be a 5-year-old girl, was found at 5:20 a.m. Sunday morning after investigators brought in heavy equipment to pull away the charred wreckage. Emergency crews, with the help of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol and Center Harbor Police had combed the area, including the waters of the cove during and after the fire looking for the missing child, Kinmond said.

Fire crews and trucks from Sandwich, Tuftonboro, Center Harbor, Holderness and New Hampton joined Moultonboro units to fight the fire. The fire trucks crowded the dead-end road where the house was located and emptied thousands of gallons of water from their tanks before dropping two hoses into the lake to draw additional water, Moultonboro Fire Capt. Ed Maheus said.

Another explosion ripped though the house of an unidentified Florida couple at 8 Adams Hill Road on Long Island Sunday afternoon about 3 p.m.

A sign posted on a tree at the front of the property said "L E Brown,"

The Moultonboro Fire Department quickly extinguished the subsequent fire. Windows and a sliding glass door were blown out and a large hole opened in the sun porch. The residence’s rear deck was also knocked off its foundation at one corner and ripped away from the house.

Moultonboro Police did not immediately release any information on this incident and cause of the explosion is unknown.

Barry W. Walker can be reached at (603) 536-4323, or by e-mail at: plybur@ncia.net