A Grand Junction firefighter waits for his hose to fill with water as he prepares to fight the blaze at 1762 N. Seventh Street.

Smoke billows up from a house that exploded on Seventh Street Tuesday afternoon.

A house exploded Tuesday afternoon on 7th Street.

Students cross the street as they exit Grand Junction High School which is being evacuated due to a fire and gas leak in the area.

Smoke rises from 7th Street as GJHS students are moved to Sherwood Park.

Bystanders watch the plume of smoke in front of Grand Junction High School.

Grand Junction firefighters talk with a dazed resident as she sits on the back of an ambulance. The woman lived two doors away from the house that initially exploded, and next door to the second house that later burned to the ground.

The fire spread to 1742 N. Seventh St. and was fought from the outside only.

As the house at 1742 N. Seventh Street burns out of control, firefighters spray foam with their new system on the south face to keep the fire from spreading to the apartment building next door.

As smoke rises behind them in the distance, Grand Junction Police Chief, center, addresses the media while flanked with Battalion Chief John Williams, left, and Fred Eggleston of XCel Energy during a press conference at the command center at Grand Junction High School.

Grand Junction Police Chief John Camper, left, shows a map of the evacuation area to displaced residents at the command center at Grand Junction High School. About 20 people were being housed in the gym at the school by the American Red Cross, who set up a shelter for those who had been evacuated.

A utilities crew works at dusk at Seventh Street and Orchard Avenue Wednesday. XCel personnel had the area cordoned off to all but the crew members and first responders.

Spot fires still burn and the charred remnants of two houses smolder at sunset Wednesday following a gas explosion and fire at 1752 and 1742 N. Seventh Street.

The houses at 1742 N. 7th St. and 1752 N. 7th. St. burned to the ground Tuesday.

Rubble is all that remains of the two homes destroyed on 7th Street Tuesday due to a gas leak, explosion, then fire. Several dozen residences on Seventh Street between Orchard and Elm avenues remain evacuated Wednesday afternoon as officials struggle to vent natural gas. Crews are drilling holes in the street to help the gas escape.

Roughly 20 people huddled in the parking lot of a Grand Junction church this morning were told to return to their evacuated homes — many still without gas or electricity — provided they’re deemed safe to occupy by Xcel Energy. A team of 35 Xcel workers were fanning out this morning over evacuated areas, Xcel area manager Fred Eggleston told evacuees outside Seventh-day Adventist Church, 730 Mesa Ave.

Evacuees line up by the bed of a pickup truck as XCel Energy’s Steve Piburn, right, and Fred Eggleston check addresses on an aerial map laid out on the tailgate before sending the displaced residents to their homes following a meeting at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Thursday. Grand Junction firefighters and XCel employees accompanied residents back to their houses to check for the presence of gas and to light pilot lights and restore electricity. Some were allowed to move back into their homes, while others were allowed to fetch clothing and important items before returning to their hotel rooms.

Workers with the City of Grand Junction vent natural gas out of a sewage line at Walnut Avenue and Seventh Street in front of Tope Elementary School Friday morning. The school was evacuated because of the lingering presence of combustible gas.