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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 17 sepTember 2019

Propane blast kills firefighter,

injures his brother, others

FARMINGTON, Maine (AP)
— A fierce propane explo-
sion leveled a newly con-
structed building after fire
crews arrived to investigate
the smell of gas Monday,
killing one firefighter and
injuring at least eight other
This July 10, 2017, file photo shows a tower outside of the razor people, including fellow
wire at the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, Okla. firefighters, officials said.
Associated Press The blast was so powerful
it blew a vehicle across an
Oklahoma prison intersection and damaged
nearby buildings. Paper, in-
violence appears gang- sulation and building debris An aerial view of the devastation after an explosion at the Life
rained on the area.
Enrichment Advancing People (LEAP) building, in Farmington,
related, coordinated The explosion shattered Maine killed one firefighter and injured multiple other people,
the two-story building that
on Monday morning September 16, 2019.
housed LEAP Inc., a non- Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — "It has to be a coordi- profit that serves people
Weekend fights at six Okla- nated effort," said Bobby with cognitive and intellec- Neighbors heard a thun- Gov. Janet Mills — who
homa prisons that left one Cleveland, director of the tual disabilities, just a cou- derous boom that rattled is from Farmington and
inmate dead and more Oklahoma Corrections ple of months after it was homes and knocked pic- whose office said she knew
than a dozen others in- Professionals. "They even finished. tures off walls. Flying paper the firefighter who died —
jured were apparently co- had fights at the minimum- "It's a war zone. It's just a and dust made it look as if ordered flags lowered to
ordinated and the result security prison," he said, mess," said Scott Landry, a a snowstorm had hit. half-staff across the state.
of race-based gang ten- referring to the Fort Supply member of the Farmington LEAP worker Lisa Charles, Mills also visited the scene
sion inside the facilities, the lockup. Town Select Board. "The who lives down the street and promised the state fire
head of a prison workers All of Oklahoma's prisons building is gone." from the explosion site, was marshal's office will investi-
association said Monday. remained locked down The blast killed 68-year- home with her kids when gate.
The first fight erupted Satur- on Monday, with fam- old Fire Capt. Michael Bell the blast startled the family. "We're going to get to the
day at the Northeast Okla- ily visitation canceled and and injured his brother, Fire She stepped outside to see bottom of as much as we
homa Correctional Center inmates mostly confined Chief Terry Bell; five other debris falling from the sky possibly can to protect this
in Vinita, in the northeast of to their cells. Prison offi- firefighters; a maintenance and feared the worst for community, to protect all
the state. It was followed cials were still investigating worker for LEAP; and an her colleagues. other communities and
Sunday by fights at prisons what caused the fights, but ambulance worker, offi- "I know everybody in there. make sure this doesn't hap-
in Hominy, Sayre, Fort Sup- Cleveland said tension has cials said. I thought for sure every- pen again," she told report-
ply, Lawton and Stringtown, been brewing for months Four of the firefighters were body was gone," she said. ers.
according to the state De- among race-based gangs in the intensive care unit at "They got a warning from The 40-by-60-foot (12-by-
partment of Corrections. inside the state's prisons. Maine Medical Center in the maintenance guy who 18-meter) building, which
The prisoner who died was Eighteen members of a Portland, while the main- was a hero for telling them served as the adminis-
at the medium-security white supremacist Okla- tenance worker was being to evacuate." trative offices for LEAP,
Dick Conner Correctional homa prison gang were treated at a hospital in Bos- Kim Hilton, who works in opened eight to 10 weeks
Center in Hominy, about 90 charged earlier this year ton, officials said. One fire- the admissions department ago and wasn't yet fully
miles (145 kilometers) north- with racketeering, drug fighter and the ambulance at the nearby University of staffed, Landry said.
east of Oklahoma City. conspiracy and kidnap- worker were treated and Maine at Farmington, said The smell of gas was de-
More than a dozen inmates ping that resulted in at least released. she was frightened when tected when the first work-
were taken to hospitals six homicides over the past The blast hit around 8:30 her building shook. ers arrived and the building
with injuries that aren't con- 14 years, according to a a.m. in this town in western "It felt like someone hit our evacuated before most
sidered life-threatening. federal indictment.q Maine, about 70 miles north building with a vehicle," she workers had arrived for the
of Portland. said. day, he said.q