Powerful blast levels Bollinger County house

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A powerful explosion Saturday night destroyed a Bollinger County home north of Marble Hill.

The blast occurred about 8:30 p.m. at a residence on County Road 852, just off Highway 51.

The house was unoccupied at the time. North Bollinger County Fire Department chief Shane Welker said Saturday night authorities have not determined the blast's cause.

The scene was shut down for about an hour after the blast, as firefighters made sure a nearby propane tank was not in danger of exploding.

"It wasn't a bad fire afterward," Welker said, "just more of an explosion."

Little remains of a house that exploded off Bollinger County Road 852 on Saturday night north of Marble Hill.Fred Lynch

No one was injured in the blast.

Insulation, siding, shingles and other debris were thrown across the road and into surrounding trees, some more than 40 feet high by the blast.

Broken pieces of plywood stuck out of the yard, apparently driven into the ground by the blast that was heard and felt for miles around.

Ryan McMinn was watching television in his Patton, Missouri, home when he said a tremor "rattled the roof" on his house.

"When we felt the house shake, my uncle called and asked, 'Did you feel that?'" he said. "I said, 'Yeah, it was probably an earthquake.'"

Little remains of a house that exploded off Bollinger County Road 852 on Saturday night.Fred Lynch

But when he learned from social media posts a house had exploded, he came to see the damage.

"We mapped it out straight across, and our house is seven miles away," he said.

He said a friend in Glenallen, Missouri, which is about seven miles away, also felt the blast.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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