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'It felt like the house was coming down:' Car crashes into Kingston, Ont. home

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KINGSTON -

When Ed Cairns woke up to a rumbling sound early Thursday morning, he thought his house was collapsing.

“I saw the mirror off my wall smash on the floor. I jumped up quickly,” he told CTV News. “I saw in the spare bedroom that the floor was gone. Collapsed. So I thought it was a sinkhole.”

It wasn’t a sinkhole. A car had crashed into the side of his house, fast enough to break through the wall and end up in the basement, coming to a stop on top of the furnace. Stone from the home’s foundation ended up on the opposite side of the house.

No one was injured in the crash, which happened around 5 a.m. at the home on Montreal Street in Kingston, Ont.

Cairns said he initially thought he was dreaming when the crash happened, but his instincts quickly took over.

“When you wake up out of a dead sleep you almost think it’s a dream right? Like, I’m thinking this has got to be a dream. This isn’t even happening. And then you realize, your senses kick in, and you go ‘I smell gas, I’ve got to get out of the house right away.”

Police say the occupants of the black 2016 Jeep Patriot fled the scene. Cairns said he heard voices in the basement and called 9-1-1, saying he thought they were trapped. But they had opened the back hatch of the vehicle and got away on foot.

It could have been a lot worse. Cairns said officials told him the car missed the main gas line by an inch. And no one was in the spare bedroom, where the floor caved in.

“If I ever have guests thats where they would stay,” Cairns said, his voice shaky. “I’m just glad my daughter wasn’t there. That wouldn’t have been good. That’s when reality hit.”

A car crashed into Ed Cairns's home on Montreal Street in Kingston on Thursday. (Kimberley Johnson/CTV News Ottawa)

Structural engineers at the scene helped extricate the vehicle from the home safely. Cairns said they remain concerned about possible collapse and are still investigating.

Montreal Street was closed from John Counter Boulevard to Railway Street "for some period of time". 

Anyone with information on the collision is asked contact Kingston Police at 613-549-4660. The investigating officer, Constable Anthony Colangeli, can be reached at acolangeli@kingstonpolice.ca or via 613-549-4660 ext. 6331.

Anonymous tips can be made by calling 613-549-4660 ext. 0 and asking to remain anonymous.

- With files from Zach McGibbon, Newstalk 580 CFRA

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