Authorities Fear the Worst as Search for Three Missing Children Called Off Following Blast at Colorado Lodge
PAONIA, Colorado (AP) -- Authorities are fearing the worst after a search came up empty for three missing children believed to be among the victims of a powerful blast that leveled a secluded mountain lodge and injured dozens.
Fire investigators were expected to return to the Electric Mountain Lodge on Monday. Officials had not determined what triggered the explosion, but said it may have been caused by propane gas used to heat the site.
Authorities said 16 people were taken to the hospital with injuries ranging from burns and smoke inhalation to ''serious compound fractures.''
The Delta County coroner had not received word of any deaths, but Sheriff Fred McKee said the missing children, ages 3, 12 and 15, were last seen at the lodge and that an active search had been called off Sunday.
''It's going to be a very difficult task,'' McKee told the Rocky Mountain News in Monday's editions. ''The urgency is different than it was last night. In this situation, they are presumed dead.''
The youngsters were from the same extended family that owned the lodge, McKee said. The family was ''doing as well as could be expected,'' he said. The victims' names were not released.
Saturday's fiery explosion quickly destroyed the lodge, leaving only two chimneys and smoldering rubble, witnesses said.
Steve Douglas, one of the lodge's co-owners, said a family reunion was scheduled for the building. ''Luckily, everyone hadn't arrived. It was pretty vacant at the time,'' Douglas said.
The lodge, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Denver, is in the Gunnison National Forest on the western slopes of the Rockies. Isolated by heavy snow, helicopters took injured people off the mountain while ground crews used snowmobiles and tracked vehicles to get emergency medical teams to the site.
The rubble was still too hot Sunday for fire investigators and search crews to enter.
''We need to get heavy equipment into the area, but due to the terrain, we are having some problems doing that,'' McKee said Sunday afternoon.
Some people were standing outside the building when it exploded, and rushed to help those inside before flames engulfed the structure, McKee said.
Dozens of residents around the small town of 1,500 swarmed to the scene Saturday to help rescuers reach the lodge. Don Holt, 39, and his brother Brad, a volunteer firefighter, used their own snowmobiles to ferry firefighters and medical personnel.
''It was a somber, gut wrenching, heartfelt ordeal,'' Holt said.
The Rev. Rick Clair, pastor of the nearby Crawford United Methodist Church, said he rushed to a school serving as a command center in Paonia after hearing about the explosion.
''I came up to see what I could do, and we just took care of the families as best we could,'' he said.
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