ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Explosives used to make fireworks might be what sparked a house explosion and fire early Friday that killed two people and critically injured four others near Black Jack.
Three teenagers, ages 16, 17 and 18, died, as did a 21-year-old man.
Authorities identified one of those who died as 17-year-old Christopher Jones. The identity of the second victim hasn’t been released.
The blast about 1:20 a.m. Friday demolished a house at 6680 Parker Road, shook nearby homes and blew out some neighbors’ windows. Debris rained down on a street more than a block away.
Jones lived at the home that blew up and was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital ºüÀêÊÓƵ in Creve Coeur, according to the county medical examiner's office. Then on Friday afternoon, hours after the blast, investigators on the property discovered a second person who died, said ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police Officer Adrian Washington.
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Police haven’t said whether the injured survivors are adults or children. A woman lived at the split-level house with her four sons, ranging in age from about 6 years old to late teens, and a man also stayed there often, according to two neighbors.
As investigators continue their probe, the local fire chief told the Post-Dispatch the culprit might be explosives that young people were using to make fireworks in the home’s garage. That is preliminary, he said, but this tragedy could be considered a teachable moment.
“They were teenagers and kids visiting, and they were trying to make fireworks,†said Ankeneth Corbin, fire chief of the Black Jack Fire Protection District. “If you buy 50 pounds of any explosive, you have just created a bomb.
“Electrostatic, anything, can cause a spark,†Corbin added.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police Officer Adrian Washington said he had nothing new to share, some 12 hours after the explosion.
Near the scene on Parker Road, rescuers set up a triage station on a driveway across the street, on North Ranch Drive.
“It was pure chaos,†said Nichole Thomas, who saw flames engulfing her neighbor’s home and a young boy and others running frantically in the yard.
“There’s kids in the house!†Thomas screamed, as she used her cellphone to videotape the fire scene from her front porch. “Oh my God. Oh my God.â€
Authorities haven’t said for certain what caused the deadly blast.
Investigators with the regional bomb and arson squad spent the morning searching the rubble for clues. They were especially focused on what had been a garage next to the brick, four-bedroom home. The garage was leveled, and the home was a burned-out shell with partial walls still standing. A cadaver dog was brought in, a fire official said.
The neighborhood is the North Ranch Acres subdivision, west of Highway 367, in unincorporated ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
The explosion rocked neighbors’ homes, blasting out side windows on a few. Sections of roof, drywall, plaster and other materials littered the street and a lawn across the street. A resident of Partridge Run Drive, nearly two blocks away, reported debris in her yard.
Police found one victim with deep lacerations, possibly an amputation, near where the garage had been, according to dispatchers. Another person had burns and cuts. At least two were rushed to Mercy Hospital ºüÀêÊÓƵ, and paramedics took at least one more victim to Christian Hospital nearby.
“They were blown from the blast area,†Corbin said.
“EMS scooped them and ran,†added Thomas Torminio, Black Jack’s fire battalion chief.
Police asked nearby residents to come outside and wait down the street for about 90 minutes while they made sure there wasn’t an additional threat of explosion or gas leak.
Thomas, who lives next to the house that exploded, said the boom shook her house. “Honestly, we thought it was a big tree hitting our roof,†Thomas said. “Our neighbors thought the same thing.â€
She went outside, saw orange flames shooting into the air next door and heard glass breaking. The force of the explosion shattered her garage window. Another neighbor, catty-corner to Thomas, said pictures fell off her wall and items dropped from a cabinet, like it was an earthquake.
“It was pretty rough watching it burn,†said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.
None of the neighbors interviewed by the Post-Dispatch knew the people who lived at the home that exploded. They said the man who stayed there worked on cars, turning them into hot rods. They said the home had a steady stream of traffic.
After the explosion, Thomas said several people were running around in the yard between her home and the one on fire.
“The fire was so big. The house is on fire, there’s people running everywhere, kids … “ she said. “There was one little boy, I didn’t know if he lived there or not, but he just kind of darted across. I said, ‘Honey, come here.’â€
The boy looked at Thomas but kept running. He looked to be about 6 or 7 years old, she said.
County records show the house is owned by a property management services company based in Marietta, Georgia.
About 40 firefighters from Black Jack Fire Protection District and surrounding departments helped fight the two-alarm blaze. No firefighters were hurt.
Based on the first calls to 911, firefighters were told it was a fire with people trapped, and a vehicle reportedly had crashed into a home. But no car had crashed into the home; instead, cars parked in the driveway had caught fire in the blast.
Black Jack fire Capt. Jeremy Bates said the injured were already out of the home when crews arrived. Supervisors ordered fire crews to fight the fire from outside the building because it was fully involved. It took firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control, and 90 minutes to put it out.
Kim Bell covers breaking news for and the ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Follow her on Twitter . She can be reached at kbell@post-disptch.com