KANSAS CITY — Six firefighters were killed Tuesday when explosives being used at a highway construction site erupted in a series of powerful blasts that Kansas City authorities say may have been intentionally triggered.
"This is being looked at by our murder squad," said Sgt. Gregory Mills, Kansas City's police spokesman. He said the alibis of four people are being investigated but offered no additional information.
Three thunderous pre-dawn explosions vaporized one fire truck, wrecked another, broke windows 10 miles from the site in southeastern Kansas City, and carved three bomb-like craters in the rocky brown soil, two of them 30 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Firefighters had been called to the scene to fight a fire in a pickup truck reported by security guards. They called in an additional engine crew when a second fire was spotted in a trailer.