Kansas City house explosion injures five, two critically

A house explosion on a residential street in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday evening has left five people injured, two of them in critical condition, police said.

Firefighters responded to an explosion in the 7100 block of Tennessee Avenue, a small block lined with homes in the southern part of the city, after 7 p.m., said Col. Darryl Forte, the city’s police chief.

Two men suffered critical injuries, Forte said.

Two other victims, both juveniles, were also hurt, but Forte, via Twitter, said they were in “good condition.”

One of the adult victims may have been the father of the two injured children, said Kansas City Fire Department spokesman James Garrett. A fifth person was also injured in the blaze, but refused medical treatment, he said.

Firefighters who arrived at the scene encountered several additional explosions and found the structure engulfed by flames, Garrett said. Garrett said the ages of the juvenile victims were unclear. He did not know if the victims lived at the home. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
Firefighters and the police department’s bomb and arson squad were both on the scene, Forte said.
In February 2013, a natural gas explosion destroyed a restaurant in Kansas City, killing one person.

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