Reporters are getting their first look at the epicenter of a deadly house explosion in Mississauga late last month.

The blast levelled a home on Hickory Drive on the afternoon of June 28 and caused significant damage to a number of nearby residences.

Initially, access was heavily restricted to the site while investigators from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office sifted through debris but on Monday the on-site portion of the investigation was completed and cleanup efforts began. Reporters were then given a tour of the neighbourhood for the first time on Wednesday.

“I was at awe by the devastation. The debris field was spread right across this entire neighbourhood,” Mississauga Fire Chief Tim Beckett told reporters at the scene on Wednesday, harkening back to last week’s chaos. “The fact that only two people died and that only nine people were injured, it’s surprising.”

In the immediate of the blast an evacuation order was issued for about 700 homes in the neighbourhood, however the residents at all but 69 of those homes have since been allowed to return.

Beckett said it is his hope that some of the residents still not allowed in their homes will be given the all-clear soon but he said it may take “months” for everyone to be allowed to return.

“Right now there is a number of building code orders on each of these buildings and there is a number of work orders that need to happen,” he said. “It can be as simple as the windows and window frames need to be taken care of to the point that they have to engineer assessments done. It varies from very simple to a lot of work.”

Police confirmed last week that two people, 55-year-old Dianne Page and her husband 55-year-old Robert Nadler, were killed in the explosion.