SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Dozens of building inspectors are assessing homes and businesses in western Massachusetts' largest city after a natural gas explosion leveled a strip club located next to a day care and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings.

The Friday evening blast in Springfield injured 18 people, many of them emergency workers. Their injuries aren't considered life-threatening.

Gas company workers had been sent to investigate a possible gas leak in the commercial and residential area, 90 miles west of Boston. The explosion occurred an hour later.