Plumber's car explodes in Vancouver's West End (with video)

VANCOUVER - West End resident Lauren McLaren was startled awake early Wednesday morning by a massive explosion that shattered windows in her first-floor apartment.

The shocked woman ran outside where people on the street were screaming after a parked car exploded in the 800-block of Nicola Street and erupted in flames, scattering debris for a block and causing damage to surrounding apartment buildings.

The car's hood was metres away in a tree, the lower windows in at least four apartment buildings were smashed and the street was littered with the contents of the wrecked car.

The explosion was caused by a leaking acetylene gas tank stored in a Toyota Matrix by a plumber identified in several reports as Michel Hachey whom police said was unbelievably fortunate to have survived the blast.

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When the loud bang rocked her apartment and she heard the glass shatter, McLaren leaped out of bed to see what happened. Four windows in her condo were blown out and she said if it hadn't been for the blinds in her bedroom, glass could have hit her bed while she was sleeping.

"I didn't think it was real," she said. "The car was flaming ... people were screaming in the street."

The air was filled with the stench of burning rubber and plastic, she said.

McLaren, who was alone at the time, said she then went outside and saw two people with glass in their faces and cut hands.

Ambulances arrived and took the two men to hospital. She said they had been in a car travelling south on Nicola Street and had just passed the parked car when it exploded.

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Plumber's car explodes in Vancouver's West End (with video)