Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Local investigators -- soon to be joined by agents of the National Transportation Safety Board -- continued Thursday to try and find the cause of a large explosion that killed two people at a private Minneapolis high school.
Three people were also hospitalized after the blast at the Minnehaha Academy. Officials said the pair killed were receptionist Ruth Berg, 47, and custodian John Carlson, 82. The seriously injured include two students and the school's soccer coach. Six people were treated for minor injuries.
The NTSB, the United States' premier civil transportation investigative agency, said it will investigate the explosion.
The Minneapolis Fire Department said preliminary indications are that a gas leak occurred, and that work was being done on the school's gas lines when the explosion occurred. Records indicate that a local firm was contracted for "gas piping and hooking up meter" at the school.
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The blast Wednesday shook the building and started a fire. Two floors of the school collapsed into a sub-basement that quickly filled with water from firefighters. Police helped people inside the school escape from under the rubble while the odor of gas hung in the air, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Thursday.
"We're getting told as we're digging them out that there is gas leaking into the basement, that there is a big drum in the basement and the flames were getting close to us as we almost had the debris off of him to get him out," police officer Vicki Karnik said of the rescue operation. "I think the hardest part was not being able to help any further."
Classes at the school are still on summer break, so not many people were inside when the explosion occurred.
A Christian school with 825 registered students, the Minnehaha Academy was founded in 1913. Staff, students and parents gathered late Wednesday at the Mississippi River in Minneapolis to grieve and to pray.
School President Donna Harris, who was injured in the incident, said, "Tonight is an example of the kind of caring community we are."
Carlson was unaccounted for in the aftermath of the blast until Wednesday evening. He was a graduate of the school -- and his children also attended -- before he returned as a custodian. A school statement referred to the beloved janitor as "Minnehaha's biggest cheerleader and longtime presence in the school.
