Houses Leveled, Three Hurt in Blast in Black Jack, MO
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(TNS)
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — An explosion Monday in a quiet subdivision near Black Jack destroyed three houses, burned two others and shook neighboring homes so hard it bent garage doors, knocked down ceilings and blew the glass out of windows.
Three people were injured and taken to hospitals. All three survived the blast.
Rescue crews searched the rubble and brought in cadaver dogs, said Black Jack fire Chief Paul Peebles, but found no other victims.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation, authorities said. Crews with gas utility Spire had blanketed the neighborhood to inspect gas lines, but a spokesman said they had not located any leaks.
St. Louis County Police Department spokeswoman Vera Clay said damage was “widespread.”
“It’s like a bomb hit that place,” said St. Louis County police Chief Col. Kenneth Gregory.
Erika Phillips, 24, was asleep in bed next to her 1-year-old son in her condo across the street when the home shook and a painting above the bed fell on her son’s face. She grabbed him and ran out as her ceiling was caving in.
“It was like an earthquake,” she said. “Boom!”
Peebles, the fire chief, said more than 20 homes were damaged, and by late afternoon, 90% of them had been tagged with a red label, meaning residents could not enter the buildings for any reason.
“It’s just too dangerous,” he said.
Residents could enter homes tagged with yellow labels but just to retrieve belongings. Homes with green labels — and there were very few — were safe to enter.
Power and gas remained shut off to about 30 homes in the neighborhood.
The incident occurred on Evan Aire Drive near Belcroft Drive, south of North Highway 67 and north of Florissant Golf Club.
Firefighters and paramedics were called to the block at 9:16 a.m. for a report of an explosion, according to the Black Jack Fire Protection District.
Jason Merrill, a spokesman for Spire, the region’s natural gas utility, said crews responded to an emergency call at about 9:30 a.m. and cut off gas supply to the area as a safety precaution.
He later said the company had not found any signs of a gas leak or other issues.
Police said St. Louis County bomb and arson investigators were taking over the case.
Ethare Mahmoud, whose mother lives across the street from the explosion and uses a walker and a wheelchair, said her mother was having trouble getting out of the house, which was damaged in the explosion.
“Smoke was everywhere. She couldn’t see,” she said. “It was scary.”
Firefighters had to rescue her mother, Mahmoud said.
Otis Pressley, who lives on Cordin Drive, the block behind Evan Aire, said there was a strong smell of gas in the air when he left for work at 6:30 a.m.
Then his wife called to tell him about the explosion. When he got home, he saw the inside of his house — “destroyed,” he said. The blast collapsed his ceilings and sent ceiling fans and lights tumbling to the floor. It bowed his garage door, and damaged furniture and personal items inside the house.
His wife was inside the home, he said, but was OK.
Otis Pressley lives one street over from a house explosion on Evan Aire Drive, and says there was a strong smell of gas in his north St. Louis County neighborhood this morning. He describes the interior of his house as "destroyed" after it was shaken by the blast on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. Video by David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Stanley Hampton, who lives in a condo building backing up to Evan Aire, said he was inside reading his Bible when he heard a boom and his patio doors flew off their hinges.
He and other residents of the apartment building ran outside onto the street. The building’s walls were cracked, its windows blown out.
Hampton, 70, was worried about whether residents could safely return to the apartment building.
“Sooner or later, we’ll get back to the apartment, but I hope they don’t condemn it,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d live.”
Bob Mannecke heard the explosion from his house 4 miles away, shortly before he headed to his Florissant restaurant, Mann Meats. While driving down Highway 67, he saw a “mushroom cloud” of smoke and turned into the subdivision, where he captured video of houses on fire.
He then called his wife and friend, who helped load up his food truck to take meals to feed the emergency crews.
Mannecke said about 100 first responders had sandwiches and potato salad by noon.
“We just wanted to help where we could,” he said.
The Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter for families at St. Angela Merici on North Highway 67, about a block north of the neighborhood.
Toiletries and other donations for victims were being collected at the Black Jack fire station at 5675 N. Highway 67.
“It’s a blessing no one was killed,” said U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell, who visited the site Monday afternoon. “But we have a lot of folks who are in need.”
David Carson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
© 2025 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Visit www.stltoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.