Dodge City ? An explosion blamed on a natural gas leak lifted a house off its foundation, but the two people inside escaped safely.

The blast occurred about 7 a.m. Thursday, tearing the front off the house and propelling furniture and other contents into the yard.

“It literally picked the house up and set it back down pretty hard,” Dodge City Fire Chief Dan Williamson said.

Homeowner Jettie Sage said the couple who rented the house from her, Johnnie and Marti Woods, were inside when the explosion occurred.

The couple’s 12-year-old dog, Lucky, suffered a broken jaw and was euthanized Thursday afternoon.

An official of Aquila Inc., a Kansas City, Mo.-based energy company, said natural gas leaked from a separation in a fuel line under the house.

“The natural gas escaped from black plastic pipe, which was connected to the steel pipe by hose clamps,” Gary Williams, Aquila’s gas operations manager for southwest Kansas, said in a news release. “Neither the plastic pipe nor the hose clamps meet code requirements. It is not known when or by whom the material was installed.”

Williamson said the explosion caused about $45,000 in damage to the house and left it uninhabitable.