A man was killed in an explosion and fire at a unit block in Ballina on Friday night and up to 10 residents of the unit block have been left homeless.
Shortly after 7.30pm, emergency services were called to Owen Street where a ground-level unit and two second-storey units were well alight.
One of the people living in an upper storey unit of the block told police they heard an explosion which shook the whole block and ran out to see the lower units on fire.
The street was closed off and the block of units cordoned off as a crime scene. Residents of the unit block were evacuated to a nearby oval as Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze.
Firefighters then found the man’s body near the rear door of a unit. He is yet to be formally identified.
Police say the building is structurally unsound and cannot be entered. They added that there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances. The cause of the explosion is believed to have been a faulty gas bottle.
