On this Date in Minnesota history: July 8

July 8, 1986 – Two people, 35-year-old Bev Spano and her 7-year old daughter Jenny, were killed after a gasoline pipeline exploded around 4:44 a.m. in Mounds View, Minn. “Manhole covers blew out of the ground, spewing sparks and fire like giant blowtorches. Walls of flames taller than utility poles flashed down the streets, melting power lines and mailboxes.”

A leak in the pipeline had caused the gas to pool underground, then bubble “to the surface where it spilled into a two-block stretch of street gutters and storm sewers.” It was speculated that the heat from the car of a woman delivering newspapers “ignited the gas, sending flames through the neighborhood. The [pipeline], constructed in 1957 and last inspected in 1984, typically [transported] about 330,000 barrels of liquid fuel per month from Roseville to Wrenshall.”
 
Minneapolis Star and Tribune; “Two died in Mounds View blast”; July 9, 1986; pp. 1A, 10A-11A.

http://www.twincitiesnorth.org/city_moundsview.asp