Kinsley, Iowa — The identities of the two men injured in an explosion near Kingsley Friday, along with the cause of the blast, have now been released.
According to the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office, the explosion happened at 7:00 am Friday in a hog confinement building at 27557 Polk Avenue, near Kingsley. Fire and ambulance crews from Kingsley and Remsen, along with Plymouth County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call. The Sheriff’s Office says when emergency crews arrived on scene they discovered two individuals who had been injured as a result of the blast. Authorities have now identified the pair as 47-year old Pedro Gallegos of Jefferson, South Dakota, and 45-year old Pedro Alvarado of Remsen.
Officials say the pair were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, one by helicopter and the other by ambulance. Both men are said to have suffered serious injuries. One of the individuals was later transferred to the Burn Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska. Further information on the conditions of the men is not available.
On Monday, Kingsley Fire Chief Paul Huth indicated that his department’s investigation into the cause of the explosion is now complete. According to Huth’s investigation, there was a faulty propane pipeline that supplied a heater in one of the hog confinement buildings. He says that when Gallegos and Alvarado arrived for work, they entered the building and turned up the heat. Huth says the building was filled with propane from the faulty line, and ignited when the heater was turned on, triggering the explosion.
Chief Huth says there are seven buildings on the site of the blast. He says three of them were completely destroyed by the explosion and fire. He says approximately 12-hundred pigs were killed in the explosion.
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Original story posted at 12:13pm, March 24, 2018
Kingsley, Iowa — Two people were severely burned in a propane explosion Friday on a farm in southeast Plymouth County.
Hanna Monson lives at the residence, which is about five and a half miles northwest of Kingsley. She says that about 7:15 a.m., she heard a giant explosion and the house shook. She says she stepped outside and a few minutes later there was smoke and fire.
One hog barn was flattened by the propane explosion and others were destroyed by the fire. One employee of the hog operation was airlifted by Mercy Air Care helicopter and taken to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, the other was transported to Mercy via the Remsen Ambulance.
The Remsen, Kingsley, and Pierson Fire Departments all responded to the explosion. Kingsley Fire Chief Paul Huth says work crews were cleaning the barn on Thursday, which may have been a factor in the explosion. He says one of the propane lines was power washed and that knocked some rust off and that led to a leak that filled the room with propane. The workers opened the door, setting off the explosion. Huth says the two men were critically injured.
There were no hogs in the building that exploded, but there were some pigs in the other buildings. The names of the injured employees have not yet been released.
