Roach-Infested Apartment Explodes in Asbury Park

Asbury Park, NJ - A roach-infested apartment in Asbury Park exploded Wednesday night after the tenant sprayed highly flammable Raid Roach Killer too close to the pilot light on the stove.

None of the windows in the Third Avenue apartment were open, and the man spraying the Raid soon developed a headache, firefighters said. He went to open a window, allowing oxygen to flow into the room, and boom! — that's when the explosion happened, said Asbury Park fire department spokesman Garrett Giberson Jr.

"You had the right mixture of three elements: The chemical, the oxygen and the ignition source," Giberson told Patch. "They sprayed a tremendous amount of Raid. There was so much chemical in the air that the introduction of oxygen just caused an explosion right away."

The family of three living there, two adults and a toddler, were taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, but nobody was seriously injured, he said. The explosion happened at 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

The man sprayed so much Raid because the apartment was roach-infested, Giberson said, and unfortunately, the roaches remained even after the explosion.

"Even afterwards, there were a lot of roaches still crawling around throughout the apartment," he told Patch. "There was definitely an infestation."

When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found the apartment's windows blown out and the front door bent from the force of the blast.

He said opening the windows beforehand may have prevented a blast. However, what really would have prevented an explosion is not spraying so much of the Raid so close to the stove and pilot light, he said.

"You should never spray a chemical near an open flame," Giberson said.