Three people have been hospitalized from non-life threatening injuries sustained in a large home explosion Tuesday morning in northwestern Missouri. The house was destroyed by the blast in St. Joseph.
Photo courtesy of KFEQ
A series of smaller explosions kept a passersby from reaching one woman who was screaming for help, having crawled halfway out of the wreckage. Eventually she was pulled to safety.
Another man was helped out of the house, and then staggered to the other side of the street and fell onto the ground. The man refused to answer any questions from the media. The owner of the house was seen talking with a neighbor shortly after the blast.
“There’s three victims at this time, said Capt. Jeff Wilson of the St. Joseph Police Department. “There’s two adult males and one adult female. I know that initial information came out that there’s a possibility of a young child inside the residence at that time,” he said. “Investigators have looked into that, and have confirmed that that child was safely at another residence.”
Wilson said there is a wide debris field, so the continuing investigation may take a significant amount of time. A joint investigation is underway between the St. Joseph Police Department, Fire Department, and ATF to determine the cause of the fire.
Story written by John Tretbar of KFEQ