A propane tank explosion at a crawfish boil in Krotz Springs over the weekend results in four victims needing to be airlifted to hospitals.
St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard said the explosion occurred after one person at the party took a propane tank into a nearby shed and was trying to adjust a setting on the valves. While adjusting those settings the valve is suspected to have broken off and propane began filling the shed. Once the door was opened the gas escaped and was ignited by the flame from the nearby boiler.
The victims were airlifted to hospitals in Opelousas, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge.
Bellard said at least one person had burns to 30 to 40 percent of their body and another had suspected internal injuries, but luckily no one died.
“For what happened at least they are alive and hopefully they will recover to 100 percent,” said Bellard. “They have a lot of burns on them so they are going to have a lot of grafts to go through, but it is really, really a bad thing that happened.”
Bellard said the large explosion could have been much worse if the rest of the party had been near the rig at the time the gas ignited. There were an estimated 20 people at the party.
The Fire Marshal is currently investigating the explosion.
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