Explosion at Medan Luxury Home Suspected from Kitchen, Built-in Stove Lifted

The forensic laboratory is investigating an explosion at a luxury house in the elite Grand Polonia housing estate in Medan. Preliminary suspicion is that the explosion originated from the kitchen.

“But at the crime scene, in terms of gas, we did not find any in other parts of the house; we only found it in the kitchen,” said AKBP Roy Tenno Siburian, Head of the Forensic Sub-Division at the North Sumatra Regional Police Forensic Laboratory, when interviewed at the scene, as reported by detikSumut on Tuesday (21/7/2026).

Roy said his team had inspected the interior of the house, including the kitchen. In the kitchen, officers found that part of the hob had been lifted.

“In the kitchen, we found a built-in hob and doors that had been blown open, with the hob lifted upwards. That is where the gas terminal used for cooking is located. So, if there was pressure there, it can be interpreted that a gas fire occurred there,” he said.

“The first finding we obtained there with a gas detector was a varying concentration in the kitchen. There was at least around 10% of its LEL (Lower Explosive Limit, the minimum concentration of a gas or vapour). At that concentration, the gas should be capable of detonating,” Roy continued.

The mid-ranking police officer said his team had collected a number of pieces of evidence for preliminary examination at the forensic laboratory. However, based on preliminary examination results, the explosion did indeed originate from inside the house.

“From the examination so far, the explosion is suspected to have originated from inside the house. What we have found is that the damage that occurred characteristically indicates that the pressure all came from within the house,” he said.