ST. LOUIS — An explosion near East Grand Avenue and Hall Street caused employee evacuations at a nearby industrial plant and blew "several" manhole covers off throughout the area, police told 5 On Your Side.
On the scene, St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said five or six explosions occurred between 45 minutes to an hour in a construction area behind the Procter and Gamble plant.
"One blew, then another one blew, then another one blew. A couple of them blew right away, and then five minutes later, another blew," said Chief Jenkerson.
Fire officials say crews received a report of a small explosion in the area of East Grand and Ferry right after 12:45 p.m. Thursday.
The first emergency crews on the scene saw multiple manhole covers blown off.
Jenkerson said that after investigating, they discovered this was related to the Metropolitan Sewer District system. He said initial readings gave first responders some very high explosive limits and a couple more manhole lids blew off afterward.
Officers at the scene said something in the sewer line caused the explosion under the Procter and Gamble (P&G) Operations Support Center.
"It's been a dry couple of weeks. All the sewers are dry, so whatever was dumped into the sewers collected and caused these explosions," said Jenkerson.
Jenkerson said there were no injuries, as everyone inside the facility evacuated safely.
One employee on the scene told 5 On Your Side that there was an odor in the building, and then suddenly, they heard an explosion. The employee said they were all told to get their stuff and immediately leave the building.
The second shift of employees was told not to come in, and then P&G officially closed its plant for the rest of the day.
Jenkerson said crews were working on flushing out some flammable material from the sewer line, which hasn't been identified yet.
"We're starting to bring levels down. We're flushing it by a four square block area, but we have to be concerned with how we flush it because some of the sewer systems run directly into the treatment plant, and if some of these products get into there, it messes up how they treat the raw storage. So, it had to be coordinated between MSD and the fire department to do this properly and not affect their processes. That took us a little time to ensure we had the proper patterns to establish. You'll see fire hydrants open and flowing, and that's how we're trying to eliminate this problem," Jenkerson said.
The P&G employee told 5 On Your Side that they make dishwasher pods in the facility.
An MSD spokesperson told 5 On Your Side that it currently has no issues at its nearby Bissell Point plant or anywhere else in its system. They also said the district will continue to survey their system to make sure nothing was affected by the explosion.
Multiple Spire crews were on the scene with gas line equipment.
Spire officials told 5 On Your Side that the explosion was not natural gas-related, as they had tested each gas site around the property without issue.
An exact cause for the explosion has yet to be specified.