An injured firefighter who's being hailed as a hero for helping to evacuate a building before a powerful gas explosion in a Portland shopping district said Thursday he was tossed up to 20 feet by the blast, AP reported. The explosion hurt eight people Wednesday morning, demolished a three-story historic building and ignited a fire that sent a plume of smoke over the city. Three firefighters, two police officers and three civilians were injured. None of the injuries were life-threatening. Portland Fire & Rescue Lt. Peter St. John blacked out after the explosion and awoke in pain as chaos unfolded around him, he said in an interview Thursday from his hospital bed. The blast broke his left femur and the tibia and fibula of his right leg, he said.
