Red Oak, IA / Papillion, NE -- It may be hard to believe a few cans of bug fogger can cause a home to explode.  Well believe it.  It can happen and according to the Iowa State Fire Marshall it did.

Charred two by fours and a few bricks.  It's the only evidence left from a house in Red Oak, Iowa nearly disintegrated earlier this month.  The blast critically injured two women in their twenties, Melissa Golden and Jill Kaczor.  The cause, bug foggers.

"I does surprise me," says Papillion Fire Captain Jeff Jones.

The ingredients in the propelled exterminator Jones says can cause a fire or explosion, but only when misused.

"If you concentrate it, that's going to make that chance of ignition even greater."

Explosions probably aren't the first thing people consider Jones says, when battling bugs with air-born poison.

"When you think bug sprays you think of the toxicity of them.  So yeah the flammability of it may be secondary in their minds but it probably shouldn't be it's one thing they should be paying attention to because it is obviously a definite danger."

If overused, Jones says the fog can be a bomb, and your house, the fuse.  Electrical sparks from any home appliance, big or small can set off a blast.  And if you follow the label directions, everything should be shut down.

"I don't know how you can possibly do that in a home.  It would be difficult because there is multiple different ignition sources in a home."

If you follow the directions, it says one can of bug fogger is enough for a large living room.  Any more it warns, can be deadly.

Reported by: Dave Roberts, dgroberts@action3news.com