4 Men Hospitalized For Burns After Chandler Building Explosion

CHANDLER, AZ — An explosion at a strip mall in Chandler Thursday morning left four young men injured, with burns covering between 16 to 30 percent of their bodies.

The explosion happened at a building in the mall near Rural Road and Ray Road around 9:30 a.m., AZ Family reported.

As of Thursday afternoon, two of the men were in critical condition in the intensive care unit; the two others were in serious condition, said Dr. Kevin Foster, director of the Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health, where all four men are being treated.

“Our expectation is full recovery for everybody,” Foster said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

It seems that the burns were caused by some sort of "volatile flash" or explosion, Foster said.

“The fact that anybody walked away from that is really amazing to me,” he said, mentioning the building's roof collapsed.

Most of the men's injuries were second-degree burns to their arms and legs, some of which will likely require skin graft surgery, Foster said.