1 dead, 9 injured in gas explosion at Missouri home
Authorities say a house explosion in southeast Missouri has left several people injured and a neighboring home in flames. (Aug. 15)
WYATT, Mo. (AP) — A gas explosion Monday at a southeast Missouri home killed one person and injured nine others, authorities said.
The explosion happened around 7 a.m. in Wyatt, a town of about 280 people that’s about 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of St. Louis, Capt. Barry Morgan with the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office said. He said authorities were trying to determine whether a water heater or stove were to blame.
He identified the person killed only as a man in his mid-20s. Nine other people — the youngest just 6 months old — had serious or critical burn injuries. Several were flown to hospitals in St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee.
“That is a ton of people in a house,” he said. “So that’s what we’re trying to determine why there were so many people in there, because when I arrived on scene, it was just there was victims lying everywhere, badly burned.”
The garage of a neighboring home also caught fire, but no one inside that structure was hurt, Morgan said.
The State Fire Marshal and a state propane commission were investigating.