Fire, Explosion | featured news

At least 16 people were hurt and a popular wine bar was destroyed by an apparent natural gas explosion and ensuing fire at an upscale shopping district in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday evening.

The explosion, triggered by the rupture of a 20-inch gas main, occurred near Sissonville just before 1 p.m., Kanawha County Fire Coordinator C.W. Sigman said. Kent Carper, president of the Kanawha County Commission, said flames had been shooting 50 to 75 feet into the air before the fire was extinguished. "It sounded like a Boeing 757. Just a roar," he said. "It was huge. You just couldn't hear anything. It was like a space flight."

The cause of an explosion and fire that killed two people Saturday night when it tore through a residential area of Indianapolis was under investigation on Sunday, authorities said.

Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich on Tuesday before explosives experts detonated the remains of an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb, Andy Eckardt of NBC News reports. Bales of straw which had been placed around the bomb to cushion the shock of the detonation were set ablaze and thrown through the air by the detonation, according to the European Pressphoto Agency. Some of them landed on the roofs of neighboring buildings and ignited fires.

An "intentional" house explosion on Sunday near Tacoma, Washington killed the husband and two sons of a Utah woman missing since December 2009, fire department officials said.

An electrical transformer exploded early Sunday on the Las Vegas strip, knocking out power to parts of some hotels and touching off a smoky blaze that snarled traffic, authorities said.

A huge explosion apparently fueled by a ruptured gas line tore through a San Francisco suburb Thursday night, destroying about 20 homes and critically injuring a number of people.

An explosion and fire at a Washington state oil refinery shook homes and shot flames into the night sky early Friday, killing three people and critically injuring four others....