A huge explosion rocked a Kansas grain elevator and shot a fireball so high it could be seen in neighboring Missouri !!!

ATCHISON, Kan. –  A huge explosion rocked a Kansas grain elevator and shot a fireball so high it could be seen in neighboring Missouri, leaving three workers dead and three other people missing, authorities said Sunday.

Trey Cocking, city manager in the northeast Kansas town of Atchison, confirmed the deaths and said three others remain unaccounted for after Saturday night's blast at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator. Authorities also reported injuries, but were still trying to get accurate information and notify families.

Cocking said authorities planned to bring in heavy equipment to dig through the rubble Sunday.

"Once we get light, we'll go from there," Cocking told The Associated Press as he left the site before dawn Sunday for a break after hours there. "From this point, they're going to have to do some excavation and bring in some crews."

The shuddering explosion could be seen and felt across Atchison, shaking homes and businesses up to four miles away. The cause was not immediately known, though grain elevator accidents can occur after grain dust becomes suspended in the air and turns explosive in the right conditions.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that 11 workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday. He said several of those 11 workers escaped injury, but that there were fatalities and some injuries.

Dennis McCulloch, spokesman for the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., had said Saturday that two victims were in critical condition in the hospital's burn unit. It's not clear whether those victims are among those now said to be dead.

Randy Burton, who works at a Quick Stop East convenience store in Atchison about two miles from the elevator, said the explosion "shook our whole building."

"All I saw was a flash and then the building shook really good," Burton said. "Some things fell off our shelves."

Across the nearby Missouri River, a dispatcher at the sheriff's department in Buchanan County, Mo., said the office received numerous calls from residents saying they could hear the explosion deep into the county. Residents across the area said a fireball from the explosion could be seen well away from the site.

Fellows said Bartlett Grain workers remained at the elevator early Sunday and aiding authorities any way they could.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/29/grain-elevator-explodes-in-kansas/#ixzz1cGd8zBVp