The Canberra Times understands the explosion and subsequent fire happened at Turkish Kebab and Pizza.

Surrounding buildings were evacuated as a precaution while crews worked to extinguish the fire.

CCTV footage from the area on Monday evening appeared to show the moment of the explosion.

Mohammad Ikram said he and his son were in a car park, having just closed his shop Jazaa Halal Foods, when the explosion occurred.

"I close my shop [at] seven o'clock. When I came out from my shop I was in the parking [lot] with my friend and suddenly after two, three minutes in the shop the blast happened," he said.

Mr Ikram said he ran inside the Turkish restaurant to pull out an employee.

"I run and save him, bring him back from the shop then his wife, she came out," he said.

Mr Ikram said he understood the owner of the restaurant had just walked back inside the shop when the explosion occurred.

"They came today at roughly four o'clock to clean the shop. They closed and they were going," he said.

"I spoke to the owner and he said he forgot something in the shop [and] he'll be back. He just opened the door again to the shop, within 30 seconds the blast happened.

"It was a small fire but it was a very small blast ... I don't know what was the reason of the blast."

Mr Ikram and his wife Sumaira said they had only opened their business a few months before the fire, which has damaged their shop.

"Because we just recently opened the shop, just two and a half months before, it is a big loss," Ms Ikram said.

"But thank God that God saved my husband and my son."

ACT Policing's Detective Acting Inspector Emily McCallum said the cause of the fire was currently unknown, and one adult male had been taken to hospital.

Acting Inspector McCallum said it was "obviously a sizeable explosion" in a very well-used area, but it was too early to comment further with an investigation now under way.

She said emergency services were grateful only one person had been injured.

For Belconnen Kingsley's Chicken franchise owner Azhar Javed, only time will reveal the extent of the damage.

Mr Javed was not at the store on Monday night, but received a call about 7.20pm regarding the explosion.

"At that time, Kingsley's was open for trade and I had a customer inside as well. So I ran to the shop, the ceilings and frontage area inside were all damaged, all the glass broken," he said.

Luckily, everyone at the store was safe and unharmed.

"Police [then] cordoned off [the area] and did not allow us to go inside. I'm not sure [of the damage] at this stage until the structural engineer can come and he can see what the damage is inside," the store owner said.

"How it will affect Kingsley's and when we can open at this stage, we are talking about maybe a month.

"We don't know anything until the structural engineer goes inside, gets some assessment."

However, uncooked chicken and food is still in the store with no power to refrigerate the perishable goods.

"The next step, when we were able to get access inside, will be to organise to dump all the food," Mr Javed said.

The explosion topped off a difficult year for Frank Morrison, owner of nearby Belconnen Outdoor Power Centre.

"It's been a tough year as it is but having this at the end of the year is not helping. It doesn't look good," he said.

Mr Morrison doesn't know how much damage occurred and has not been able to enter the building due to structural safety concerns.

"I can't see us opening for a while because the structure of the building is not looking real good," he said.

"So until we can actually get in there, which is probably going to be either this afternoon or tomorrow, I don't know.

"I can't even check on stock and we've got customer stock in there as well.

"It looks like the blast from the kebab shop shot through the void in the roof and the roofing tiles and forced out the front of the building.

"It doesn't look like there's any roof at all left, it's all just collapsed, but other than that all the windows are tinted and I can't see any further."

ACT Fire and Rescue commander Brett Slater expected crews to stay at the scene for a substantial period of time as the clean-up continued.

Residents in surrounding suburbs reported hearing a large explosion about 7.30pm on Monday.

There was a large amount of debris strewn around the street following the explosion, and windows were damaged in shops across the road from the restaurant.

Emergency crews said the fire had been extinguished about 9.20pm.

Vishal Sood said he was in his residence opposite the shop when he heard a large bang, and his whole building felt like it shook.

"For me it was bigger than [an] earthquake," he said.

"I was playing games at my home with my son just opposite [the] shop.

"The roof of that building was in the air ... for a while."

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Daniel Foster said he also heard the explosion from his apartment on Emu Bank Drive, opposite Hungry Jack's.

"The windows rattled suddenly. I thought a cockatoo must have flown into them, but no. Then a friend in Florey texted me to say she experienced the same thing," he said.

Jocelyn Taylor heard the explosion from Scullin.

"The whole house shook. [We] could see the smoke from the location," she said.

Kat Lindbeck said she thought there had been an earthquake, when she heard the explosion from her home at Weetangera.

"[I] actually thought it was an earthquake, as the whole house shook, including windows, mirrors and pictures on walls. A lot of us came outside our houses and were looking around up and down the streets to see if others were OK and if someone needed help," she said.

Rae Street and Josephson Street in Belconnen remain closed are and expected to remain closed into Tuesday morning.

Members of the community have been asked to avoid the area.

While police have already spoken to several witnesses, anyone who witnessed the explosion who has not yet talked to police is asked to contact ACT Policing Operations on 131 444 and quote reference number P2042617.

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