Lee’s Summit, MO – An explosion lifted part of the roof right off a Lee’s Summit apartment building Monday. A ball of flames erupted as a maintenance man was trying to light a family’s furnace in the 2400 block of Missouri 291 Highway.
We were in mid conversation and the next thing you know boom, resident Wayne Massey said.
Jennifer Steele says she reported to maintenance that their propane furnace wasn’t working over the weekend. Her husband was at work, her son at school, and she was running errands when that maintenance man tried to light the pilot light late this morning.
There’s no roof, there’s really nothing, all you see is this big hole from where we used to live, Steele said.
“I seen the roof lift off about two feet, the whole roof lifted up and then came back down and smoke was coming out and fire, so I knew we had a big problem, neighbor Mark Hoyle said.
Hoyle ran from apartment to apartment, helping neighbors escape with their pets.
He grabbed my cat saved my cat from burning up, almost saved the neighbor’s dog, but couldn’t get him in time, Zachary Massey said.
After battling the blaze for two hours, firefighters found the 2-year-old therapy dog named Chase inside apartment six where the explosion happened. Firefighters said several other pets were also unaccounted for.
She was my son’s best friend they did a lot of stuff together, Steele said.
Twenty-two people are out of their homes because of the explosion, the building has been condemned. Three upstairs units sustained the most damage, where the roof collapsed. Other units suffered smoke and significant water damage. Most of the residents low-income with few resources outside of the Red Cross assistance they received immediately after the fire.
Still their biggest concern was for the man who was just doing his job, and ended up running from the building on fire himself.
I hope that he’s okay and I feel bad that it was my apartment that hurt him, Steele said.
The Missouri Propane Safety Commission was on scene Monday night investigating.