An explosion sent a boiler flying into the air above St. Louis on Monday morning, killing three people and injuring four others, according to the St. Louis Fire Department.
Firefighters said two people suffered critical injuries and another two had injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening after the explosion around 8 a.m. local time.
One person died when the van-sized boiler exploded at Loy-Lange Box Co. on Russell Boulevard. The blast threw the boiler 500 feet into the air, fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It landed in an office area at the Faultless Healthcare Linen building, killing two people, according to the newspaper.
Investigators said the explosion appears to have been an accident.
"We'll take a look at their maintenance schedules on all these boilers and we're also going to bring the building department in and take a look at that as well," Jenkerson told KMOV. "These boilers, when they get pressurized they get very dangerous. … It takes a licensed boiler operator to operate these things."
Witnesses described a hectic scene outside Loy-Lange Box Co.
“I (opened) the door and we (saw) dust flying … stuff flying everywhere,” Rocky Pruneau, who works in the building across the street from Loy-Lange Box Co., told the Post-Dispatch.
A third building was also damaged in the blast. An eight-foot piece of pipe pierced roof of the Pioneer Industrial Corp. building and knocked out the building’s sprinkler system, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion.
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