First responders search through rubble after an explosion at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago.
Chicago water plant collapses after methane gas explosion, injuring 10
A buildup of methane gas is suspected of causing an explosion at Cook County's oldest water treatment plant on the Far South Side Thursday morning, collapsing a roof and seriously injuring 10 workers, two of them trapped under steal beams and rubble.
By Amanda Watts and Eric Levenson, CNN
Thursday, August 30, 2018
(CNN) A methane gas explosion Thursday at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago caused part of the plant to collapse, injuring 10 people there, according to Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MRWD) of Greater Chicago.
"There has been an explosion in the sludge concentration building at the Calumet water reclamation plant," the full statement from agency says. "There are injuries. Emergency crews are on the scene. We have no additional informational at this time."
The roof of the sludge concentration building collapsed at 11 a.m., MRWD said. Two people were trapped and were excavated from the building, and a total of 10 people were injured and transported to local hospitals. The cause of the collapse is under investigation.
Aerial video of the scene shows that the roof collapsed in one section of the building, and first responders on the scene were digging through the rubble.
A tweet from Chicago Fire says they are responding to an incident at the plant. The plant is located in Riverside, south of Chicago.
The roof of the plant rests on the ground after Thursday's collapse.
=============================
A buildup of methane gas is suspected of causing an explosion at Cook County's oldest water treatment plant on the Far South Side Thursday morning, collapsing a roof and seriously injuring 10 workers, two of them trapped under steal beams and rubble.
One of the trapped workers was rescued about 20 minutes after the blast ripped through a sludge concentration building at the Calumet Water Treatment Plant at 400 E. 130th Street around 11 a.m., according to Chicago fire officials.
The second worker was "buried and entombed" by fallen debris, and it took firefighters two hours to free him, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters. Specially trained firefighters tunneled underneath the rubble to reach the worker, who remained conscious.
"Companies had to dig six feet down and then tunnel their way across 20 feet to the victim," said Santiago, whose last day on the job was Thursday.
Firefighters removed a metal beam from the worker's legs while paramedics worked to keep the worker from going into shock, the commissioner said. The emergency crews made sure to relieve pressure on the worker's arms and legs so he would not face amputation.
The worker was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medical Center with leg injuries and a broken jaw. He was listed in critical condition but was described as alert.
"Took a lot of training, a lot of exercise," said William Vogt, in charge of fire operations at the scene. "They went to work on this guy and they did a phenomenal job. It was a very dangerous situation but they made sure they had everything stored properly."
All of the other injured were listed in serious-to-critical condition as they were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, University of Chicago Medical Center, Stroger Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The plant is the oldest of seven MWRD water treatment facilities, according to the agency's website. It began operations in 1922 and serves more than 1 million people in a 300 square-mile area in the southern portion of Cook County. There was no immediate word from the district how the explosion will affect operations.
Methane is a byproduct of the treatment process, and officials said they were investigating whether a buildup of the gas caused the explosion in the one-story brick building.
Lamar Herron said he was visiting a friend at the Altgeld Gardens housing project when he heard a massive boom.
As he and the friend started toward the source of the noise, Herron said. "You could see the big black smoke that was over there," he said.
Herron said he and the friend got in a car and followed first responders to the scene and watched as the relatives of some workers tried to get inside.
One of them was Gina Ruiz, who had received a call from her husband Bill, a pipefitter who had been working inside the building under contract with the MWRD. In a garbled message, her husband said there had been an explosion there and that numerous co-workers, including his partner, were trapped inside.
She left her job in south suburban Matteson and cried as her mother drove her to the scene across from the Altgeld Gardens housing complex. Soon after arriving, Ruiz learned her husband had been battered by falling pieces of the roof but was OK.
"He just said there were a lot of guys trapped inside," she told reporters outside the building as she waited for his ambulance to take him to Northwestern.
Ruiz told his wife the explosion sounded as if it came from below ground, leading workers to speculate that it occurred in the sewer pipes underneath the building.
"He said (the explosion) blew the roof off and (it) came back down," she said.
Ruiz initially ran with the explosion, but tried to get back when he realized his partner was partially lodged under fallen concrete.
Special operations chief Timothy Walsh said two paramedics went into the hole tunneled by fire crews and began treatment on one of the trapped workers while emergency medical staff were in constant contact with University of Chicago doctors.
"We sent two paramedics down from the rescue teams who started treatment on him immediately," he said. "We started an IV on him. We were in (contact) with the University of Chicago. We medicated that patient because we were worried about a collapse injury."