Mark Jones was putting his five-year-old son to bed Monday night when he heard a huge bang in their downtown Toronto condo.
"It sounded like someone had driven a truck into a garage door," he told HuffPost Canada.
He looked down the hallway of his building at 85 East Liberty St. and saw smoke. He and his family, along with their neighbours, were evacuated. The whole hallway reeked of gunpowder, he said.
The loud bang was an explosion in a unit on the floor above that blew out the windows, an incident police told the Toronto Star may be linked to a meth lab.
The explosion, which occurred in the sixth-floor unit's kitchen area, was so intense it blew out into the hallway and damaged all three elevators, sending them crashing down to the main floor, 680 News reported. A man in his 30s was taken to hospital with minor burns to his face and hands.
Andre Hagen was charged Tuesday with possession for the purpose of trafficking a narcotic, according to Global News.
Despite the extent of the damage to the condo, there were no other injuries reported.
Jones said he talked to residents who said they had noticed strange smells coming from that unit in the past and weather stripping on the door. He added a lot of families live in the building, too.
"There's no way for a property manager to screen who rents those places, but it’s pretty scary."
Toronto Drug Squad and the Ontario Fire Marshal's office is investigating, according to the National Post.