UPDATE: Classmates raising money for teen injured in explosion, house fire

DELMAR -- Students at Bethlehem Central High School are raising money for a classmate who sustained serious injuries in an explosion and house fire.

Keenan Sanchez, 15, was recovering Sunday in the burn unit at Westchester Medical Center. His family’s house was destroyed.

Classmate Felix Moody, a sophomore at BCHS, created the website www.helpthesanchezfamily.org, where donations had reached nearly $500 within the first few hours. Clothing donations are also being accepted at the high school, Moody said.

The cause of the explosion and resulting fire remained under investigation Sunday.

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DELMAR -- A basement explosion turned a quaint yellow house into a chemical-filled orange fireball on Saturday, critically injuring a teenage boy and destroying the family’s home, police said.

Keenan Sanchez, 15, sustained serious burns and lost a hand in the blast, an emergency medical technician told CBS 6 stringer/videographer Tom Heffernan, Sr. The boy’s mother, who called 911 to report the explosion, was not injured.

The two town police officers who rescued Sanchez, along with two paramedics, were treated for “possible exposure to an unknown chemical,” police said. HAZMAT crews were reportedly decontaminating every emergency responder.

A paramedic told Heffernan that the basement was "filled with several chemicals." Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were investigating.

Multiple, smaller explosions tore through the burning house as firefighters worked successfully to prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring homes, Heffernan said. The blasts frightened the crowd that had gathered to watch the conflagration.

It is not known whether there were any pets inside the house.

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The fire was in Delmar, not Bethlehem as previously reported.