House explodes in northeast Baltimore early Thursday morning

BALTIMORE - A natural gas explosion leveled a house in northeast Baltimore and injured a man early Thursday morning.

Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright says firefighters were called to the 5800 block of Key Avenue at about 2 a.m.

Chief Cartwright says when firefighters arrived, the home had been destroyed and there was a fire in the gas meter.

Cartwright says the man who was burned is a black man in his mid-forties.  He lived near the faulty gas meter.

He suffered second and third degree burns to his neck, face, and arm and has been taken to Bayview Hospital.

He says the man was conscious when he was found.

The home that exploded was vacant and no other homes were damaged by the blast.