Cole County paint shop damaged, one injured after propane explosion
UPDATE – 5 P.M.: One person is injured after a propane explosion at a Cole County Paint Shop.
Regional West Fire Protection District workers were called to the Xtreme Body & Paint facility in the 1000 block of Lomo Drive just after 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
“When we arrived on the scene, we had fire coming out of the stormwater drain in the middle of the parking lot,” said Jack Brade, Fire Chief Regional West Fire Protection District. “So, the ground ended up being saturated with propane.”
“The building was energized, we had electricity going through it and it was arcing on the outside of the building,” said Brade. “So, we treated the building as an energized building.”
Employees told ABC 17 News the owner of the business, Chris Russell, was the only one injured in the blast and was rushed to University Hospital in Columbia for treatment.
“Chris is doing good, stable condition,” said Xtreme Body & Paint Employee Gary Vanderfeltz. “It’ll be a road of recovery. We kinda shut down for today to get the utilities straightened out so that we can get the collission shop back open again.”
Vanderfeltz said he hopes to have the business back to full operation in a couple days.
Insurance officials, propane suppliers and fire investigators are still working to determine a cause of the propane explosion.
ABC 17 News will continue to follow this investigation.
ORIGINAL: A paint shop in west Cole County sustained heavy damage after an apparent fire.
A garage at Xtreme Body & Paint in the 1000 block of Lomo Drive was found to be heavily damaged early Thursday morning.
Initial reports indicate an explosion occured at the business.
Regional West Fire Protection District is in charge of the investigation and did not immediately release any information when asked Thursday morning.
ABC 17 News will continue to follow up with fire authorities and update this article with new information.
Editor’s note: This story and headline have been updated to reflect that a garage at the business appeared to be heavily damaged.
