An explosion that took place at a Minneapolis school killed the receptionist and a janitor
The school was soon turned into a pile of collapsed walls, buckled floors, ignited fires and people being knocked off their feet.
The blast occurred around 10:30 in the morning, after a construction team warned of a gas leak. The explosion broke through the center of the Upper School.
Both emergency crews and school employees came together to fight the flames, and climbed through the catastrophe to pull people out of danger. By midmorning, around eight people had been rescued; unfortunately, the receptionist and a janitor were nowhere to be found.
Ms. Berg’s body, the receptionist, was found around 2 p.m. after the crews used specialized equipment to remove big pieces of the collapsed building. Moreover, Mr. Carlson’s body, the janitor, was found six hours later.
Both were found in the rubble next to an exterior door. Chief John Fruetel of the Minneapolis Fire Department also mentioned that the emergency responders kept on hoping until the very end that the two victims had found a safe spot inside the building.
“We were hoping there might be a void space,” Chief Fruetel said at a news conference
Jack Mahler, a witness, mentioned that he was right across the street practicing soccer when he saw two men trying to warn the others, yelling: “Gas! Get out!”
He also added that he saw neighbors run to the collapsed building in order to help. The explosion took place just a few weeks before the start of the school year, when the building would have been overcrowded with students and teachers. On Wednesday, only a few staff members and a few students were there for summer instruction.
