Gas explosion at South Dakota school kills 2

PLANKINTON, S.D.--The death toll increased to two yesterday after a gas explosion tore apart a school and ignited a fire. A school administrator died after being trapped for hours under the debris.

"Everything is indicating accidental in nature and we're investigating it under those circumstances," state Fire Marshal Dan Carlson said.

He said the explosion was caused by a propane-gas leak that somehow was ignited. The blast and fire gutted the original brick school building and heavily damaged a newer addition.

A school custodian injured in the blast died at a hospital in Sioux Falls. An injured volunteer firefighter was hospitalized in serious condition.

School officials had smelled the gas about 5:30 p.m. Friday and evacuated wrestlers from the gym, Carlson said. The explosion occurred about two hours later, when only the three men were inside.

"You can see that the entire roof and assembly above the area is gone," Carlson said. "We don't know where it is, and there were at least two layers of concrete between where they (the men) were and that roof assembly and it's all gone."

Rescuers yesterday pulled sheet metal, concrete and lumber from the rubble and passed them down a line of about two dozen firefighters to reach a basement storage room where one man, identified as a school administrator, had been trapped overnight.

They last had voice contact with the man late Friday, about three hours after the blast, when he said he was pinned, Carlson said.

The school housed grades kindergarten through 12, drawing its 190 students from a more than 250-square-mile area.

Schools from other towns have offered to take the students and have offered books, computers and other supplies, but the school board, meeting yesterday, said it plans to rebuild the school and wants to keep students in town in the interim rather than busing them to other schools.

"I think the sooner we get these kids together the better it's going to be," said Gary Kristensen, a board member.

The board canceled classes for this week. Members discussed using churches and vacant meeting rooms for classrooms.

Firefighters had emptied the town's water tower to fight the blaze and then hauled water from surrounding towns.

Counselors were on hand to help people in the small town where everyone knows everyone else, Fire Chief Dwight Schamber said.

"One of those injured is one of our firefighters, so obviously we'll be observing our people for signs of stress," he said.

Plankinton has about 600 residents and is about 90 miles west of Sioux Falls.