A gas line explosion and towering fireball hurt at least one construction worker and consumed construction equipment about 2 p.m. Wednesday along Illinois 162 in Maryville.
The injured person was taken to Anderson Hospital in Maryville with burns over 70 percent of his body, then flown to a St. Louis hospital. The equipment operator with Keller Construction in Edwardsville was stabilized at the Maryville hospital before being transferred to Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, which has a burn unit.
“They were able to get him here very quickly,” Anderson Hospital spokeswoman Natalie Head said. “Our prayers are with his family.”
News photographs and eyewitness accounts painted a chaotic scene, with police officers rushing toward the fireball.
Maryville resident Jim Harrison said he saw Maryville Police Officer Justin Krausz carry an injured person from the fire.
“He put his car in park, radioed it in and ran directly toward him, and picked him up and carried him a distance from the flames, then other rescue crews started arriving,” Harrison said.
Maryville Police Chief Rob Carpenter said a construction crew excavating at the site of the future Villas at Nottingham hit a 10-inch steel gas line and triggered an explosion at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. Carpenter said the intense flames made it difficult for emergency workers to work, but they were able to get to a worker who was seriously injured and rush him to the hospital. “The flames were shooting very high in the air when we arrived,” he said.
Early reports that there was a fatality on the scene were in error, Carpenter said. “Everybody else is accounted for,” he said.
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