Brantford firefighers check a sixth floor balcony at 24 Helen Avenue on Friday morning after propane tanks on the balcony exploded. Flames and heavy smoke caused evacuation of the building. (BRIAN THOMPSON/The Expositor)

BRANTFORD, Ont. — A family was lucky to escape serious injury on Friday when a mid-morning explosion, possibly linked to several small propane tanks, erupted on an apartment balcony.

Keith Perry was just returning from the bank with one of his daughters when they saw emergency crews flanking the building, smoke pouring from their sixth-floor apartment and a crowd of tenants milling about outside.

“I was panicking,” Perry said, because his wife and two children, Karianne and Kyle Conley, age 17 and 15, had been at home.

Everyone was out safely, but Perry’s wife, Catherine Conley, was taken to hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, he said.

The crept to the balcony next door, but there was no fire damage inside the apartments.

Fire department officials are probing the cause of the explosion, but Perry believes it was triggered by several small propane tanks, formerly used while camping, that he had been left on the balcony for some time.

“They were just sitting there. I forgot to get rid of them. I don’t know why it would blow. I won’t be doing that from now on,” Perry said.

Kyle Conley said he was sleeping at the time and it was his sister who woke him up, not the explosion.

He said his sister wanted to run out to pour water on the balcony, but he prevented her from doing so. The two teenagers then had to pull their mother out of the apartment because she was distracted with taking care of the family dog, he said.

“I said, ‘We have to go,’” Kyle said.

Building residents and neighbours were startled by the explosion.

“It was a big bang,” said fifth-floor resident Debbie Macdonald.

Looking out her balcony window, she saw smoke and fire. She said she quickly gathered her children and her dog and fled down the staircase.

Residents were allowed back into the building before 11 a.m., except for the residents of the two apartments where the balconies were affected by the explosion and fire.

— With files from Vincent Ball