Search for victims after the explosion of a gas station in Virginia reveals three human remains

May 11, 2019, 21:01 UTC

By Dennis Romero

Three sets of remains were found in the rubble of an explosion at a gas station in Rockbridge County, Virginia, state police said.

Matching the remains to identities could take several days, Virginia's Judicial Police Office, Sgt. Rick Garletts said Saturday afternoon in a statement.

The explosion at the gas station, called South River Market, was reported around 9:30 am Saturday morning and rescue teams searched the rubble during the first search of three to five people who could have been on the scene. before the explosion.

Four wounded in the blast were transported to the Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital.

State police opened a criminal investigation at the request of local authorities. However, Garletts pointed out that every investigation in his office is a criminal investigation until facts prove otherwise.

The state police first said in a statement on the blast: "At the moment, this does not seem suspicious."

Neighbor Ryan Clark told WSLS, an affiliate of NBC News in Roanoke, Va., That he saw a fire after the blast.

"All you could see was probably an 80-foot flaming tower and smoke and debris everywhere," he said. "And by the time I got to the tracks, you could see that there was this total devastation."