OAKLAND, Calif. -- Two drivers whose cars Saturday careened into an Oakland home before igniting a blazing inferno that destroyed the home remain at large.

The drivers were fleeing an illegal Oakland sideshow early Saturday morning when their cars went hurling into a nearby house, rupturing a gas main that precipitated the blaze and sending a sleeping family running for their lives.

Authorities said the two vehicles were traveling southbound on 90th Avenue from the area of Bancroft Avenue at an unknown speed when they crashed into a house located at 2040 90th Ave. at 4:20 a.m.

Steven Tupa was asleep in the house when the cars crashed into it.

"I was sleeping and I heard a big wake-up alarm," he told KTVU. "It was loud… It woke me up instantly… As soon as I got near the front door I felt another impact… I felt the whole house shake… My first thought was to get everyone out."

"The fire started with the first one (car)," said Tupa, who lived with seven members of his family in the home. "I looked outside and all I could see was people running… People were outside screaming to get out of the house."

Next-door neighbor Sergio Garcia was awakened by the initial explosion.

"I was sleeping and I heard an explosion," he said. "I went to wake up my family and then I looked outside and I saw the car on fire."

Both Tupa and Garcia said the neighborhood is often the scene of illegal sideshows -- gatherings of young people on warm nights where cars are spun in circles at high speeds. Tupa said his family's destroyed home had been hit by a car from a sideshow several years ago.

The drivers of the two cars fled from the scene and remain at large while their vehicles became melted hunks of metal.

The Sideshow Enforcement Unit was not on duty during the incident, according to Oakland Police Sgt. Barry Hofmann.

"But that changes tonight," he said. "People get killed. People get shot. People get robbed. Cars go into houses and they get caught on fire."

As firefighters extinguished the blaze, officers raced to stop another sideshow a few blocks away.

There were no injuries. The home was completely destroyed.