Madison Rock Natural Gas Explosions, Wisconsin Suburbs, Level Buildings

SUN PRAIRIE, Wisconsin – A series of explosions shook a community in Wisconsin after a contractor hit a natural gas pipe in a downtown filled with bars and other businesses, injuring two firefighters and a police officer, the authorities said. CBS Madison, Wisconsin affiliate WISC-TV reports that some buildings have been razed.

First responders rushed to the scene of a gas leak and an evacuation was underway Tuesday, announced Lt. Kevin Konopacki. He adds that lives were probably saved by the evacuation, which was triggered by people who smelled like natural gas.

No deaths have been reported and no one has been reported missing, but Konopacki has stated that buildings would be searched in the suburbs of Madison about 30,000 times once the flames extinguished. Firefighters still battled the flames more than three hours after the blast.

The first powerful explosion occurred around 19:15. and sent a plume of smoke and flames in the air.

Konopacki said the firefighters were taken to the hospital, while the officer was treated on the scene. He added that some civilians had suffered minor injuries, but that no one needed to be hospitalized. He did not know the exact number of wounded civilians.

WISC says that other explosions followed:

WE Energies spokeswoman Amy Jahns said that a contractor's workers had apparently punctured a natural gas main 4 inches, send leaking gas into a building before the explosion. The 12 gas lines in the area were closed around 9:30 pm

The blast, about half a block from City Hall, seemed centered on the Barr House, a pub . Authorities evacuate a radius of half a mile and set up a shelter at Sun Prairie High School.

Steve Owen, 60, owner of Sun City Cyclery and Skate in downtown Sun Prairie, said he saw firefighters and police on the street. the explosion has arrived. He said that the building in front of his store "is literally high."

He said that the force of the explosion had spilled him on his chair and that he had run outside and had seen a fireball. "Owen, who lives above his shop, says," Jill Thompson, 56, who lives about two blocks from where the blast occurred, said : "It rocked the entire building, saw the smoke immediately."