Contractors Strike Gas Line, Trigger Fatal Explosion In Durham, North Carolina

A gas explosion that partially collapsed a North Carolina building and set it ablaze Wednesday morning killed one person and injured more than a dozen others, police said. Police cars blocked the streets near the explosion in downtown Durham and a thick, acrid smoke hung over the shopping district created from remodeled tobacco warehouses. At least two ladder trucks sprayed blasts of water into the smoldering rubble nearly two hours after the explosion. Durham Police Department spokesman Wil Glenn said a contractor boring under a sidewalk hit a 2-inch gas line, triggering the explosion. One person was killed and 15 people were taken to area hospitals, Glenn said at a news conference. One firefighter was seriously injured, he said.