BARTLETT, Iowa — One employee was killed in a deadly explosion at J-Dog Salvage near Bartlett, Iowa, while disassembling a large fuel tank.
The Fremont County Sheriff's Office, OSHA, and fire officials arrived around noon Tuesday and are still investigating the incident. Right now, the victim's identity has not been released.
I spoke with one neighbor, Roger Petersen, who was in his home right next to the business when the explosion happened.
"I thought a tree fell on the camper, I mean this thing just shook," Petersen said.
Petersen immediately jumped into action because of the recent windy and extremely dry conditions in the area.
"What I was scared for is we have our garage over there, and I thought whatever blew up was going to burn our garage down," Petersen said.
Petersen had to relocate with his wife to their current home when the 2019 floods hit. He says the local community is very tight-knit, especially during hard times.
"We lost everything, all our paperwork, my coins in there, I had half a million hockey cards destroyed," Petersen said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
