No injuries reported in New Hampton mobile home explosion, fire
New Hampton firefighters respond to a report of an explosion in a mobile home park in New Hampton Wednesday. No injuries were reported in was was attributed to a natural gas leak that ignited. New Hampton Tribune photo by Bob Fenske
A natural gas leak was the reported cause of a small explosion that damaged a mobile home in New Hampton Wednesday. A family of five were in the house at the time but were not injured. Firefighters allowed the gas to burn in the broken pipe and protected the walls of the home until the gas could be shut off. New Hampton Tribune photo by Bob Fenske.
By Bob Fenske, of the New Hampton Tribune
A broken gas line caused an explosion at a mobile home in Parkview Court on New Hampton’s east side Wednesday morning, and New Hampton firefighters were on the scene for almost six hours.
“The good news is no one was injured,” said New Hampton Fire Chief Steve Geerts. “We had a singed eyebrow, but that was about it. It could have been a lot, lot worse.”
Firefighters were called to the mobile home park located across the street from Mikkelson Park at around 8:45 a.m.
Geerts said an outside gas pipe was “busted off below the valve” and that gas had leaked into a mobile home inhabited by Derek Beam, his wife and three children, all of whom were in the house at the time.
That caused what Geerts termed a “flash explosion” that blew out part of the ceiling in the mobile home, but Geerts said the “flash went out just as fast as it came in.”
Firefighters let the gas burn in the pipe and made sure the side of the home didn’t burn.
Black Hills Energy shut off natural gas to the entire park, and no other mobile homes had to be evacuated.
The fire department was on the scene until about 2:30 p.m., and Geerts said at that time Black Hills workers were returning to turn on the gas for the rest of the park.
Also assisting at the scene were the Chickasaw County Rescue Squad, Chickasaw Ambulance Service and the New Hampton Police Department.
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