Ghent, West Virginia Gas Station Explosion CNN Update

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.