5 injured in explosion at Kankakee gas plant

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Updated: August 16, 2011 11:59AM

Authorities say five people were injured, two seriously, after an explosion at a plant in north-eastern Illinois.

Kankakee County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ken McCabe says police received a call about the explosion at Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America in Herscher just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

McCabe says the explosion happened during routine maintenance and wasn’t due to a gas leak. Authorities say the building has been secured.

All five people were transported to a hospital in Kankakee. There’s no word on their conditions.

Nobody answered calls to the company Tuesday.

Herscher is community with less than 2,000 people about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, near Kankakee. The plant is located on a county road south of the community’s business district.