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Officials investigate cause of Mass. strip club blast that injured 18, mostly 1st responders
• SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Officials had already evacuated part of the entertainment district in one of New England's biggest cities because of a gas leak and odor report before a natural gas explosion leveled a strip club and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings, including a day care. Eighteen people were injured, many of them first responders.
• Investigators were trying to figure out what the caused the Friday evening blast that could be heard for miles and left a large hole in the ground where the multistory brick building housing Scores Gentleman's Club once stood and debris scattered over several blocks.
• Teams of inspectors on Saturday were scheduled to assess the level of damage to other buildings in downtown Springfield. Some controlled demolition was expected.
• Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers were in the area filled with commercial properties and residences after responding to a gas leak and odor reported about an hour before the explosion.
• "It really is a miracle and it's an example of our public safety officials, each and every day, putting themselves in harm's way, taking what could have been considered a very routine call of an odor of gas, but they took the proper precautions," State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said. "And thanks to God that they did."
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End nears for boxer 'Macho' Camacho as mother decides to stop life support after sons' visit
• SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The mother of Hector "Macho" Camacho says she has decided to have doctors cut off life support for the former world champion boxer Saturday once three more of his sons get a last chance to see him.
• Though opposed by Camacho's eldest son, Maria Matias, the boxer's mother, said she had decided it was time for doctors to disconnect the machines that have kept him alive since he was shot in the face earlier in the week.
• "I lost my son three days ago. He's alive only because of a machine," Matias said. "My son is not alive. My son is only alive for the people who love him," she added.
• She said at a news conference Friday night that she was waiting only for (Continued on page 30)
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