At least sixteen people have been injured in a natural gas explosion that destroyed a Missouri restaurant, JJ’s, on Tuesday.
Although nobody has been reported dead, a local hospital has treated four people for burns and smoke inhalation and one person is still missing.
Witnesses reported smelling natural gas in the area hours prior to the explosion.
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Sharon Fisher was at a spa next door to JJ’s when the incident occurred.
“I put my hands over my head, dropped to the floor, looked up and saw glass flying in pieces from the ceiling,” Fisher said. “The walls started buckling. I could see daylight when it stopped. We ran out of there as fast as we could.”
The explosion damaged windows a half-block away as the entire JJ’s restaurant went up in flames. Only remains of bricks and shattered glass can be seen.
“It sounded like thunder, but it felt like an earthquake,” said Tracey Truitt, a lawyer who was working in a nearby building.
Investigations have led many to believe that a pipeline below the ground had been struck by a worker at a local gas company.
Missouri Gas Energy issued a statement Tuesday evening saying “early indications are that a contractor doing underground work struck a natural gas line, but the investigation continues.”
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