SPRINGFIELD — A security camera captured the moment a propane tank exploded in Springfield earlier this week.
The large explosion was heard and felt by neighboring homes and businesses around E. Home Road Tuesday morning after a propane tank was dropped while being moved by a construction crew.
New video obtained from the Clark County Combined Health District showed the moment the explosion happened and produced a large amount of fire.
>> PHOTOS: Large emergency response after explosion in Springfield
Video shows fire start behind a tree line before spreading and expanding. The flames stretched up to nearly the same height as a two-story building in the video.
The Clark County Combined Health District sits less than a half mile away from where the explosion happened.
News Center 7 previously reported that workers from Armcorp Construction, Inc. were working at the site of a former children’s home, renovating it for Project Women, were moving a 2,000-gallon propane tank that fell off a forklift. The valve broke off, releasing propane gas into the air.
“This released the propane, which, being heavier than air, traveled along the ground until it found an ignition source, which then caused multiple explosions,” according to a social media post from Springfield Fire Rescue Division.
Three workers were injured in the explosion. Two of them were flown to Miami Valley Hospital for burn injuries, while a third worker was treated and released on scene. The two flown to the hospital were said to have sustained non-life threatening injuries, but we are working to learn an update on their conditions.
Several buildings within the complex were severely damaged by the blast and the fire, including structural members and roof rafters. Three cars belonging to the workers working on the site were also damaged.
“This is a very powerful explosion and could have been even more so,” Springfield Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Smith said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirmed Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the workplace incident with Armcorp Construction, Inc.