Explosion levels house in South St. Louis. 2nd home burns. Nearby firefighter rescues woman from exposure. Before & after pictures of the home.
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See photo gallery of aftermath
Watch KSDK-TV interview with St. Louis Fire Department spokesman Bob Keuss (or here)
From KSDK-TV:
Several employees of St. Alexius Hospital in south St. Louis are credited with saving the life of a 61-year-old woman whose home is adjacent to the scene of a house explosion that occurred Saturday evening.
According to Bob Keuss, a spokesman with the St. Louis Fire Department, the explosion took place around 10:50 p.m. Saturday in the 3900 block of Ohio Avenue, near Keokuk Street.
Keuss said that the 61-year-old neighbor’s home caught on fire as a result of the explosion, causing significant damage to several walls in the home.
James Wilson, a security officer with St. Alexius Hospital, saw the explosion while making his rounds, and had the hospital dispatch contact 911 while he and several others responded to the house.
“We started evacuating neighbor’s houses and I knew that a handicapped female lived in that house, and when I approached the front door, the side roof collapsed,” said Wilson.
Wilson, along with hospital employees Cherie Boudreax, Rick Price, and St. Louis Fire Department paramedic William Wicker then went to the side of the home where they hoisted Wicker through a window.
“I found a window that we could force… someone hoisted me up, and we started screaming just to verify that someone was in there,” said Firefighter Wicker.
Wicker discovered the 61-year-old woman, who uses a wheelchair, trapped inside with her pets.
The house on the left was the one leveled by the explosion. Click the image above to take the Google Maps Street View tour of the neighborhood. You will notice across the street from the explosion is the rear of St. Alexius Hospital where FF/PM Wicker and the other rescuers where when they heard the blast.
While Firefighter Wicker was helping the woman toward the window, the others were outside giving constant updates about the condition of the house.
“They notified me that there was swaying, it became a very unstable situation,” said Wicker. “I always maintained voice with them. I wasn’t going to go any further into the building than what I could hear or what I could see.”
After she was rescued from the home, Wilson and Boudreax attended to the 61-year-old, who refused medical treatment.
Boudreax, who received minor injuries from helping the woman out of the window, acknowledged the group effort.
“It was all worth it, probably would have done the same thing again,” said Boudreax.
