NORTH RIDGEVILLE — The explosion in an Eastview Street home Thursday night was caused by fumes that built up from gas leaking from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was parked in the garage, North Ridgeville Assistant Fire Chief Scott Bement said today.

He said it will likely never be known what caused the fumes to ignite, causing the explosion which severely damaged the house owned by Gary Klemens.

Klemens’ son, Adam Klemens, was the only one in the house when the explosion occurred and was treated and released from Fairview Hospital for smoke inhalation, Bement said.

The Klemens home at 5955 Eastview St., is probably a total loss because of the heavy damage it sustained in the explosion, Bement said.

Heat from the fire melted vinyl siding on the homes on either side of the Klemens home as well, Bement said.

See Saturday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Earlier Story

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — An Eastview Street home was heavily damaged Thursday night in an explosion and subsequent fire.

The explosion occurred around 10:30 p.m. at a two-story home at 5955 Eastview St. No one was injured, said North Ridgeville Assistant Fire Chief John Reese.

According to data from the Lorain County auditor’s website, the property is owned by Gary Klemens.

The front of the house was completely destroyed, and a car in the driveway was burned. The home was fully engulfed when firefighters from North Ridgeville, Westlake and Avon arrived.

Reese said that since there was a reported explosion, the fire marshal would investigate.

Dozens of neighbors gathered to watch.

Mallory and Michael Walsh were at home next door with their two small children when they heard what Mallory described as a “loud boom.”

“I grabbed the kids, Michael called 911 and we ran out,” she said. They went to the house on the other side of them, where Misty Blalock was asleep and was awakened by her neighbors knocking on the door.

“I didn’t hear (the explosion),” Blalock said.

Kara Koprowski and Sarah Kitko were at Kitko’s home, more than a mile away south of Center Ridge Road, when they heard what sounded like fireworks.

“I thought it was pretty early for people to be setting those off,” Koprowski said. “Fourth of July’s still a few weeks away. Then Sarah’s sister got a text that a house blew up, so we came to see.”

The houses on both sides had siding melt from the fire, Reese said, and firefighters immediately hosed them to prevent any further damage.

Mallory Walsh said they had left a sliding screen door which faces the Klemens’ property open, which she feared meant more smoke damage in their home. Shortly after midnight, the Fire Department let Michael Walsh go into the home to lock up and pack some essentials like diapers and formula for the night.

Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

Paul Kardar, 14 and an eighth-grader at Open Door Christian School, won The Chronicle-Telegram’s regional spelling bee in April. He’s now in Washington, D.C., where he will compete in the 83rd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Round 1 of the three-day competition begins tomorrow, but the Kardars have been in D.C. since Sunday. Paul will be updating us with his adventures throughout the week.

Paul Kardar looks up from his study materials for the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., while in the courtyard outside Open Door. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

Paul has made it through the third round, spelling ipecac correctly. (Ipecac, in case you were wondering, refers to a South American plant, its roots or drugs made from its roots.) Paul earlier made it through the second round by correctly spelling parvitude, which means likeness.

Here’s an update from Paul:

Wednesday

Today I took the round 1 test (a computer test composed of 50 questions, with 25 that count toward moving on). I could sound out almost all of the words, and I was familiar with about half of the words. I also went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, one of two places where U.S. bills are produced. It was interesting to see how the bills we use today are produced. Another interesting place I went to was the National Archives. It was amazing to see the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other old U.S. documents, all written by our founding fathers, in person. The other site I went to was the Old Post Office. This post office has a clock tower that you can go up into and catch a good view; it is the 3rd tallest building in our nation’s capital.

Thursday

So far today, I spelled 1 word in the second round. It was a little bit nerve-racking waiting to find out if you will get a word that you know. I correctly spelled the word parvitude.

ELYRIA — A three-judge panel has imposed a sentence of life without parole on convicted killer Nicole Diar.

Nicole Diar during a break in her 2005 trial. Her sentence was overturned by the state Supreme Court in December 2008. (CT file photo.)

Diar, 34, had agreed to serve the life without parole sentence rather than risk a jury sentencing her to death again for the 2003 murder of her 4-year-old son, Jacob Diar.

Visiting Judge Judith Cross warned Diar before she and Lorain County Common Pleas Court judges Raymond Ewers and Christopher Rothgery went to deliberate that they weren’t bound to honor the agreement.

Diar camly answered “yes, ma’am” when Cross asked her if she understood.

The Ohio Supreme Court overturned Diar’s death sentence two years, but upheld her guilty conviction on aggravated murder and other charges.

Jacob’s body was pulled from Diar’s Lorain home after a fire gutted the building. Prosecutors argued during Diar’s trial that she set the fire to cover up killing her son.

Check back at Chroniclet.com for more on this story as it develops.

SHEFFIELD TWP. — Two people were flown to a Cleveland hospital around noon today, one of them a Garfield Elementary School teacher, after a head-on car crash about 11 a.m. on Broadway in Sheffield Township.

Naomi Pagan, age unknown, was returning from a meeting around 11:30 a.m. and was heading north on Broadway when her black minivan was struck head-on, according to school board President Tony Dimacchia.

She was hit by a white pickup truck driven by Joe Poyna, 47, of Strongsville. Matt Poyma, 20, of Strongsville, his son, was with him in the truck. Matt Poyma was taken to Avon Emergency Care Center via ambulance, but no one at Avon ER had information about him.

Joe Poyma’s wife, who didn’t give her name, was at Clearview High School in Lorain where LifeFlight helicopters landed to transport her husband and Pagan. She said Matt Poyma had just returned home from college in San Diego and was with his father for their first day of a construction job.

Unconfirmed reports have the father-son team working on the new Sheffield Township Fire Department Building located just yards from the accident scene, which had debris scattered for several yards.

Check back at Chroniclet.com for more details as they become available.