One dead after Dubois County house explosion
A preliminary investigation found that propane gas was a likely source of the devastating explosion that killed a man and leveled a home Monday evening in Dubois County, Indiana.
The blast, which occurred at about 6:10 p.m. EST near the town of Hillham, could be heard and felt for miles in every direction and left a large debris field and smoldering rubble in its wake.
The Dubois County Coroner's Office had not publicly identified the deceased victim as of Tuesday afternoon. Mike Beam, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, told the Courier & Press the man appeared to have occupied the home where the explosion occurred.
"That person has been removed," Beam said. "The county coroner will be doing an autopsy to confirm the identity."
The Dubois County Sherriff's Office had previously considered the deceased man to be missing.
The scene of the deadly explosion is located about 6 miles southwest of French Lick and about 7 miles north of the Patoka Lake Reservoir, a popular recreational area, in the 2200 block of North Hillham Road. The Indiana State Police released photographs Monday night showing fire crews working against a backdrop of orange-yellow flames and smoke that had enveloped the area surrounding the blasted-out home.
"Lost River Township Fire advised some houses half a mile away were damaged, and the explosion could be heard 10 miles away," ISP Jasper stated in a Facebook post.
Commenters on social media reported hearing the blast even outside the 10-mile radius specified by the ISP, as far north as Bedford and as far south as the town of English in Crawford County.
The Indiana State Fire Marshal and the state Department of Homeland Security are leading the subsequent investigation in collaboration with local agencies and an insurance company. Beam stressed that while any findings were as of yet preliminary, gas stored in a propane tank buried underneath the Hillham home appeared to have ignited and caused the explosion.
"This particular tank only supported this residence, so it's not connected to other houses in the area," Beam said.
Investigators will comb through the debris field searching for evidence that could point to a possible ignition source, according to Beam.
"That might be examining the tank, lines into the residence, lines to appliances," he said. "They also would examine the soil to see if there had been leaking occurring. They look at burn patterns and the debris and how that's spread out. That all can give indications of what took place, because their goal is to find the cause and the origin."
Southern Indiana is no stranger to deadly house explosions, which investigators have often traced to buildups of natural gas or heating gasses, such as propane. However, some incidents have never been fully explained.
In 2022, a leaking gas pipe inside a Weinbach Avenue home in Evansville contributed to a massive detonation that killed two and damaged dozens of surrounding homes.
In Jeffersonville, just north of Louisville, Kentucky, natural gas ignited in 2019 after a woman flipped a light switch, triggering a devastating explosion that killed her husband and injured two others.
Two people were killed and three others were injured after an Evansville home exploded in 2017. The damage inflicted by the blast was so extensive that investigators could not determine what may have caused it. The three surviving victims filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against CenterPoint Energy alleging natural gas was to blame.
On Halloween night in 1963, a propane explosion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis killed 74 people and injured nearly 400 during a "Holiday on Ice" skating performance. An electric popcorn machine ignited propane gas that had leaked from a rusty tank.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Dubois County man missing after house explodes south of French Lick
