Three people were killed and four others injured Monday when an explosion sent a massive boiler crashing through the roof a St. Louis box company and slammed much of it down hundreds of feet away in a neighboring laundry business.
One person died in the blast about 8am at the Loy-Lange Box Co. and two more were killed when a large piece of the van-sized boiler crashed into the Faultless Healthcare Linen building, Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said.
Investigators were trying to pinpoint what caused the boiler to blow up at the building in a largely industrial area of south St. Louis, Jenkerson said.
Two of four survivors are critically injured, including a linen company worker who was found pinned beneath the boiler, which Jenkerson said was roughly 4 feet in diameter and 10 feet long, and weighed about a ton-and-a-half.
He said the boiler was still hot when rescuers arrived and that it had traveled up to 500 feet.
None of the victims' names have been released as of early Monday afternoon.
A third building was damaged when a piece of pipe - about 8 feet long - linked to the blast smashed through its roof, Jenkerson said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4376400/Fire-chief-3-die-4-hurt-boiler-explodes-St-Louis.html#ixzz4dDtFobn9
