Argentine gas workers held in deadly blast

Argentine firefighters found potential signs of life today as they hunted through the ruins of a 10-story apartment building destroyed by a gas explosion that killed 10 people, injured dozens and left 12 unaccounted for. Officials said damaged towers alongside were in danger of collapsing upon the rescuers.
With heavy equipment blocked by the towers that remain standing, firefighters were mostly working by hand, using a sensitive listening device and body-sniffing dogs to try to reach an area two stories underground where they heard sounds that could have been from victims, he said.
"We have some possibilities in the second basement, and that's where, with much difficulty, we have been able to reach. We're trying to work without making a sound or creating vibrations that could provoke a collapse of the other buildings," said Marcos Escajadillo, the provincial security secretary in the city of Rosario, speaking at a news conference.

Meanwhile, a repairman and his assistant, who were working on the building's gas system moments before the blast, were in custody today as investigators studied the Litoral Gas company's records and gathered testimony pointing to a potential negligence case.
Judge Juan Carlos Curto said one repairman fled the scene while the other tried to warn people moments before the blast, which damaged buildings for blocks around in Argentina's third-largest city. At least 22 people remained hospitalized today, authorities said.
Residents of the building said they had been complaining for weeks that natural gas wasn't reaching their stoves and water tanks, and the repairmen were in the building yesterday trying to fix the problem.

Litoral Gas spokesman Jose Maria Gonzalez told reporters that the company was neither involved in nor informed beforehand about yesterday's repair, and said it had received no complaints since a July 26 gas repair in the building, after which an inspector agreed to turn the gas back on. Judge Curto confirmed that the detained repairman, Carlos Osvaldo Garcia, and his assistant were not directly employed by Litoral Gas. He said he ordered records of the gas company and the building's owner to be searched to determine responsibility in the criminal negligence case.