Minneapolis School Explosion Causes Partial Collapse; 2 Missing

A natural gas explosion at Minnesota school caused extensive damage Wednesday morning to Minnehaha Academy’s upper school, where sports teams and camps were practicing and others were meeting.

The explosion was believed to be caused by a leak from a ruptured gas line at a construction site on the campus, and some had just seconds to get out of the building when they were warned about the leak, the Star Tribune reported.

Part of the building collapsed from the explosion, and five people were injured, one critically, while two are still unaccounted for. Another who was thought to be inside at the time of the explosion was later found unharmed in another location, the Tribune reported.

Assistant Fire Chief Brian Tyner said a search and rescue mission is taking place, but that the two missing might not be inside the building. “I’m not confident that they are in there ... our hopes are that they are not in there,” he said, the Tribune reported.

The explosion caused a fire in the building that was extinguished by about noon, ABC News reported. Three people were rescued off the roof.

An initial reported fatality turned out to be untrue, and police reported at 1 p.m. there were no confirmed fatalities at that time.

School administrator Jacob Swanson was in a meeting when the explosion occurred and said he was “praying for the people who might still be in there,” the Tribune reported.

Minnehaha Academy is a K-12th grade private Christian school with about 825 students enrolled. School was scheduled to start Aug. 23 for all grades.

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