Exploding tire sounded 'like a bomb went off' (4 Photos)

THUNDER BAY — Darrell Mozell was on his way home from camp on Sunday when a neighbour called on his cell phone, telling him there had been an explosion and there was "glass everywhere" back at his house.

The spare tire inside his Suburban had burst in the heat, shattering the vehicle's windows and blasting debris at his house and throughout the yard.

Another neighbour, two doors away, described it as sounding like a bomb went off, saying it caused their swimming pool to shake.

When Mozell got home to his Dawson Heights property, he found "there was glass for about 50 feet in every direction around my vehicle. The front door of my house was smashed. I've got five pieces of siding that were smashed by the glass that went right through."

The explosion also caused chips in the home's picture window, and propelled glass into the yard next door.

Mozell believes the high temperatures on the weekend heated the inside of the Suburban to the point where the tire's pressure "just got too high."

He said the tire was older and had wear, but was not weather-cracked. He'd used it just this past winter when the Suburban he uses to plow snow got a flat.

Mozell feels fortunate that no one was nearby at the time of the explosion.

"I back the vehicle into my driveway....so it was lucky it was aimed the way it was. [And] kids weren't running around the yard, between the neighbours' kids and our kids."

It took a considerable amount of time to retrieve all the glass from the yard.

Mozell ran his shop vacuum back and forth across the lawn but his wife, Kim, expects they'll be picking up the pieces for months to come.

She posted photos of the damage on Facebook to make other people aware of what happened.

"We're just curious to know, has this happened before? Is it the brand of tire? Is it the heat? We never would have dreamt this in a million years, not the sheer power of it," she said.