Troops Guard Area After Blast Kills 4

National Guard troops surrounded downtown St. Cloud, Minn., to prevent looting after a natural gas explosion demolished three buildings and killed four people. The explosion also injured 15 people. Officials, confident no one else was trapped in the crumbled buildings, stopped searching for bodies and began looking for answers. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jack Fox said they may never know what sparked the explosion in this city 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis. He’s not sure how long the downtown section will be closed. Officials said construction workers apparently ruptured a gas line while laying fiber optic cable. Officials said two Northern States Power Co. employees likely saved lives before the blast took their own. Robert J. Jacobs, 46, and Karl Klang, 53, were trying to seal a gas leak and evacuate people when the blast occurred. The others killed were resident Delbert Rose, 68, and Carolyn Sandquist, 53, who was in the area for lunch.