Victims identified in Indiana home explosion

Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the blast in Evansville that killed three and injured 39

The victims of a massive house explosion in Indiana that killed three and injured dozens more have been named.

Married couple Charles Hite, 43, and Martina Hite, 37, and Jessica Teague, 29, all from Evansville, were killed in Wednesday’s blast, the Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office announced.

The explosion damaged 39 homes, leaving 11 uninhabitable, and had a 100-foot blast radius, Fire Chief Mike Connelly told reporters on Thursday.

Federal and local officials are still trying to determine the cause of the blast.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had explosive specialists on site on Thursday, spokeswoman Suzanne Dabkowski told the Associated Press. Ms Dabkowski said their presence wasn’t an indication of an intentional or illegal cause.

Authorities in Evansville, which lies on Indiana’s border with Kentucky, declined to say whether they thought it was a natural gas explosion.

Mr Hite’s nephew Aaron Hite told WFIE he rushed to the hospital after hearing about the explosion to find his uncle had already been pronounced dead. His aunt died shortly afterwards.

“When I heard about it, I was in the waiting room, my mind was just blank,” Aaron Hite told WFIE. “I was devastated. I was so scared and upset.”

He told the local news outlet he had spoken to his uncle on the morning of the blast.

“His last words were ‘I love you,’” Mr Hite said.

It was the second house explosion in the area in just over five years, the Associated Press reported.  In June 2017, an explosion caused by a natural gas leak killed two people and injured three others.