In a dramatic incident captured on video, an explosion rocked a neighborhood near Hayward, California, leading to the hospitalization of six individuals. The powerful blast, recorded by a doorbell camera, occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday, sending debris skyward and igniting a fire that summoned emergency sirens.
“It felt like something straight out of a Hollywood movie,” Christian Maldanado, who recorded the video, shared with KTVU. “The experience was surreal and terrifying.”
The Alameda County Fire Department reported that a significant firefighting effort was required, with 75 firefighters responding to the scene to combat the intense three-alarm fire. The explosion caused the destruction of three buildings and inflicted damage on nearby homes.
Authorities confirmed that six people were transported to local hospitals for treatment. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation by officials, who are working to determine what led to the incident.
Footage of the explosion, which took place on December 11, 2025, was provided by Christian and Brittany Maldonado, who witnessed the shocking event.
A doorbell camera captured a home explosion near Hayward, California, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Christian and Brittany Maldonado)
The explosion occurred in the unincorporated community of Ashland, near the city of Hayward. The city is home to about 160,000 residents in the East Bay, 15 miles south of Oakland.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was alerted around 7:35 a.m. that a construction crew — not with the utility — had damaged an underground gas line. Utility workers arrived to isolate the damaged line, but gas was leaking from various locations.
Workers stopped the flow of gas at 9:25 a.m., and the explosion followed shortly afterward.
Gas was flowing for two hours, but the explosion happened 10 minutes after the line was shut off, PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian confirmed.
The home explosion and fire near Hayward, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, left six people injured and three properties destroyed, officials said. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)
Three structures on two separate lots were severely damaged, said Alameda County Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Nishimoto. Some of the 75 firefighters who responded had to back off momentarily when they felt electric shocks from power lines that had fallen on the site.
“Every window in my house was blown open,” a local resident, identified as Deborah, told KTVU. “There are cracks in the ceiling. My house is destroyed.”
The neighborhood of single-level homes near two freeways had been undergoing construction work for wider sidewalks and bike lanes.
Interstate Highway 238 was temporarily shut down by the California Highway Patrol as authorities responded to the explosion and fire, according to KTVU.
Damage is seen after a gas explosion on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, near Hayward, Calif. (Minh Connors/AP)
PG&E told the station that three of the company’s workers were among the injured, while a family member said the other three people injured were residents of the home that exploded and are being treated for third-degree burns.
