SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (November 24, 2012)--Dozens of building inspectors were assessing homes and businesses Saturday Springfield, Mass., after a natural gas explosion leveled a strip club next to a daycare and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings.

The blast Friday evening injured 18 people, many of them emergency workers, but their injuries weren’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.

Authorities cordoned off the center of the explosion Saturday morning as building inspectors worked to identify unsafe structures.

Punta Cana restaurant manager Omar Fermin said the explosion shattered the business' floor-to-ceiling windows and made the area look like an earthquake zone.