Source | Associated Press
By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER

Search to Resume in Wreckage of W.Va. Convenience Store Where Blast Killed 4, Injured 5

GHENT, W.Va. Jan 31, 2007 (AP)— Twenty-five years as a police officer in New Jersey didn’t prepare Mike McDonough for the devastation from a convenience store explosion that killed four people in southern West Virginia and injured five others.

All that was left of the Flat Top Little General Store after Tuesday’s propane blast was a pile of splintered debris, twisted metal framework and a sign showing the price of gasoline. Candy and hot dog wrappers ended up in trees 200 to 300 yards from the store, said McDonough, who lives in nearby Flat Top.

“Strange things happen,” McDonough said.

Authorities had not determined whether any customers were in the store at the time or if there were more victims, state Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis said. A search of the debris was to resume Wednesday.

Seven nearby homes and an elementary school suffered minor damage. No injuries were reported at the school or the homes.

The explosion occurred about 10:50 a.m. as emergency workers were investigating a report of a propane leak, Lewis said. The victims included a building inspector and a volunteer firefighter.

Lewis said store employees were working on an above-ground tank capable of holding 500 pounds of propane. However, that tank and the store’s underground gasoline tanks did not explode, he said.

“It is our initial thought that the fumes entered into the building and had to have an ignition point,” Lewis said.

He said cold temperatures would have kept the gas close to the ground.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said it was sending a team to Ghent. The board makes safety recommendations to industry, labor groups and regulatory agencies.

Beckley-based Little General Inc. had no comment.

William Manning, a bartender at the nearby Bear’s Den, said he heard the explosion at his home 4 miles away in Cool Ridge. Manning drove to the store because his next-door neighbor works there. He said he helped carry her to an ambulance but would not give her name.

“I barely recognized her. I couldn’t believe it was her,” Manning said, crying.

Gov. Joe Manchin met privately with the victims’ relatives at the Ghent Volunteer Fire Department in the rural community about 70 miles southeast of Charleston.

“We seem to continue to go through many difficult times in West Virginia,” Manchin said at a news conference, referring to recent disasters including the deaths of nine people in a fire at a Huntington apartment complex and a string of coal mine accidents.

Four of those injured Tuesday were at Cabell Huntington Hospital on Wednesday and one was at Charleston Area Medical Center, said Celeste Hinzman, spokeswoman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Hospital officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Source | CNN

At least four people were killed and at least two critically injured Tuesday when an explosion leveled a gas station in this southern West Virginia city, officials said.

Among the dead are a firefighter and a paramedic, state fire marshal spokeswoman Celeste Hinzman said.

The volunteer fire department was at the gas station to evacuate people after a report of a leak in a 750- to 1,000-gallon propane tank, Raleigh County Sheriff Danny Moore said.

One ambulance that was on the scene to help with the evacuation “disintegrated,” he said.

Moore said as many as seven people may have been killed.

“The whole building is leveled,” Moore said. “We are digging through the debris now, trying to confirm how many were actually working, how many customers they had, how many were at the gas pump.”

Video from CNN affiliate WVVA showed what little was left of the structure and blackened, smoking rubble.

Hinzman said four people were injured, two critically, but a Raleigh General Hospital spokesman said five people had been brought in.

Blast heard for miles

A clerk with the Appalachian Inn three miles away said she heard the blast, which briefly knocked out power to the motel.

“I thought it was something in our building,” Shirley Cavendish said.

She said the news of the explosion traveled fast, and people are worried about their neighbors and friends in the area.

“Everybody’s upset about this around here,” Cavendish said.

Ghent is near the Winterplace Ski Resort, about 60 miles southeast of Charleston.

A massive explosion at a gas station near a ski resort in Gent West Virginia has left at least two people dead and five other injured, authorities said.

Officials say the blast was likely caused by a propane tank which exploded just before 11:00am Tuesday morning at the Flat Top Little Store.

Five people were taken to Raleigh General Hospital for treatment, a spokeswoman said.

Witness say the explosion was felt at least a mile away at The Ski Shop, reported CNN.

Source | Associated Press

(West Virginia) An explosion leveled a gas station near a ski resort Tuesday morning, killing at least four people and seriously injuring at least nine others, authorities said.

A firefighter and a paramedic were among the injured at the Flat Top Little General Store on Route 19, said Kim O’Brien, spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshal’s office, who provided the casualty figures.

Authorities suspect that a propane tank exploded at about 10:45 a.m., just as a fire truck was pulling into the station in response to a report of a leak.

The cause of the explosion has not been determined. O’Brien said she’s not sure whether it was a propane tank or a liquid petroleum tank that exploded.

All that’s left of the building is a pile of debris, twisted metal framework and a sign showing the price of gasoline starting at $2.19 a gallon.

The explosion was felt at least a mile away at The Ski Shop.

“I thought we got struck by lightning. The whole building shook. The power went off,” said Ben Monast, the shop’s manager.