A home in North Plainfield was destroyed Monday night in an explosion during severe weather and flash flooding.

The North Plainfield Fire Department says that when crews got to the scene around 11:30 p.m. Monday, the house was engulfed in flames. Officials say crews had to make their way through about 2 feet of floodwater to fight the fire.

Officials said it was difficult to do a full search of the home at first to make sure everyone was accounted for. But News 12 has learned that the residents were not inside the house at the time of the explosion.

"You see some roofing falling from the sky basically and then within a couple of minutes, it was all a blaze,” says neighbor Daniel Gonzales.

It took about 15 minutes to put out the fire, according to officials. They were able to keep it from spreading to nearby homes.

Gonzales says that his family’s three cars, motorcycle and basement were all damaged by the flooding.

"The water started rushing in, lifted the car so we had a tie it with this extension cord to prevent it from damaging the garage,” he says.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.