A strip club explosion that leveled the gentleman’s club and damaged 41 other buildings on Saturday was caused by “human error,” according to authorities who are currently investigating the explosion that injured 20 people in Springfield, Massachusetts.
According to officials, a utility worker accidentally punctured a pipe which caused the explosion.
Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan revealed:
“Human error … is what the cause of the explosion was.”
A gas odor call was placed to the Columbia Gas Company on Friday evening, which led a gas worker to a building on Worthington Street in the city’s entertainment district. As the worker was using a metal probe to find the leak, they punctured an underground pipeline. As gas rushed out of the punctured pipe, an unknown spark caused the explosion.
The blast leveled the Scores Gentlemen’s Club and caused significant damage to a nearby day care center.
Miraculously, nobody inside or outside of Scores were severely injured during the strip club blast. Twenty people were taken to a local hospital, but all were released shortly after admittance.
Springfield is the biggest city in western Massachusetts with 150,000 residents. Also located in Springfield is the Basketball Hall of Fame, a building that is not located inside the blast radius.
The strip club explosion is just the newest setback for Springfield, a city that was still rebuilding after a tornado ruined businesses and residential homes in the area back in June 2011.
Officials have promised to release more details if and when discovered through their ongoing investigation.
