Three firefighters were safe Friday after they survived an explosion while extinguishing a kitchen fire. The cause of the explosion remained unknown late Friday.

“Our guys by the grace of God were able to retreat out to safety,” said Wells Fire Chief Mike Pyzick.

He said the firefighters were performing a simple attack on an interior blaze at 500 First Ave. S.W.

“This is what we practice all the time,” he said.

Suddenly, the explosion lifted the roof off the house and dropped it down again. The chief said he was blown three feet out the north door and said the compression must have passed over firefighters in the kitchen. He said the three hugged the floor.

Pyzick said he knew neither the explosion’s cause nor the kitchen fire’s cause. He said he is confident the explosion wasn’t natural gas, because the natural gas explosion came later and happened externally when the meter blew. The natural gas explosion snapped a live power line, causing another problem for firefighters. A utilities crew was present.

A team from the state fire marshal’s office was on its way to investigate.

After the explosion, the three firefighters crawled to safety out the north door. Then the Wells Fire Department stayed on the exterior in dousing the fire.

“Surround and drown,” Pyzick said.

The sole owner of the house is 54-year-old Melinda Greeninger. Many locals know her as the former owner of the Country Table restaurant in Minnesota Lake.

She and friend Mark Benson told a Wells police officer they took a man to a 1:10 p.m. chiropractor appointment in Wells. The appointment took about 15 minutes, she said, and then they went to the VFW Hall.

Benson said they hadn’t finished their drinks when someone came in saying a house was burning at First and Fifth.

Greeninger said they didn’t know which First and Fifth in Wells it could be, but drove straight to their home and discovered her kitchen was ablaze.

She said she has no idea what caused the fire. She said she has no space heaters.

“I unplugged everything. I’m kind of a fanatical about that,” she told police.

Greeninger said she lost guns that had belonged to her father and grandfather in the fire, along with other heirlooms and photos of her three now-grown children.

“I lost the pictures of my kids when they were little,” she said.