By Robert Imrie
The Associated Press
ELLISON BAY, Wis. — Much of this tiny tourist town on the shore of Lake Michigan remained closed Tuesday, a day after at least one explosion wrecked buildings and killed two vacationers.
“What should be a bustling community right now is vacated. It’s a devastating blow,” Charles Most, chairman of the Door County Board and the Liberty Grove Town Board, said late Monday.
Roadblocks routed traffic around the town.
The blast early Monday collapsed a 136-year-old grocery store, burned down a cottage and damaged a maintenance building that including several apartments in this unincorporated village of about 150 residents on the Door County peninsula, said Chief Chris Hecht of the Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Department.
The victims were found in the wreckage of the cottage. Seven others were injured.
“If this would have happened in the daytime hours, it would have been totally devastating,” Most said.
The cause had not been determined but investigators were focusing on a possible propane gas leak, Hecht said.
There was speculation that a contractor could have damaged underground propane lines, said Wisconsin Public Service Corp. spokesman Kerry Spees.
Authorities relocated about 100 tourists and residents after the explosion. The wrecked cottage was part of the Cedar Grove Resort, where Hecht said 49 people were staying.
Laura Capp, 19, of Beach Park, Ill., said she heard three blasts.
“The first one woke me up. The second one was really loud. The third one was quieter, really small,” said Capp, who had been sleeping in the family’s summer home about a quarter-mile away.
Village officials will seek a disaster declaration, Most said.
The victims’ identities were not released.