NORTH ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – Firefighters rescued two people from under rubble after a home exploded in north St. Louis Thursday night
A two-story home exploded near the intersection of Broadway and Thrush before 10:30 p.m. Firefighters said the fire then spread to two nearby homes. One home was completely destroyed. Firefighters evacuated all other homes on the block as they worked to secure the scene.
Two males were trapped underneath rubble, but were eventually rescued by firefighters. The two victims were taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Witnesses described the scene as something they would have seen in an action movie.
One witness told News 4 she was in her car, parked near the area of the explosion, when she heard a loud noise and saw debris falling in all directions. She said after the home exploded, the fire quickly spread to two other nearby homes.
A man said he was far away from the scene when the building he was in shook.
“We got debris in the parking lot which is three blocks away, in our parking lot, and when I got over here, the house was completely gone and we had two houses with fire coming out of the roof,” said Robert Cotton.
More than 80 firefighters were called to the scene.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Gas has been shut off to the home that exploded.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
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