Eighteen people were hurt when a natural gas leak triggered an explosion that completely leveled a strip club in Springfield, Mass., and damaged 12 other buildings, officials said Friday.

The blast blew out all windows in a three-block radius, and prompted emergency workers to evacuate a six-story apartment building that was buckling.

People were knocked off their feet by the blast, NBC affiliate WWLP-TV reported.

Those injured in the blast included nine firefighters, four gas company employees, two police officers,  one water and sewage employee and two civilians.

Two hospitals treated the injured people, though none were in critical condition, officials said.

"It really was a miracle on Worthington Street that no one was killed," Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray told reporters at a news  conference in Springfield Friday night.

The blast, which leveled the Scores Gentlemen's Club, was was heard for miles.

Fire Marshall Joe Conan told reporters at the press conference that the call reporting a strong gas odor came in at 4:20 p.m., and the explosion took place at 5:25, about 15 minutes after the gas was shut off.

The club had been evacuated by the time gas leak ignited. 

A dancer at the club told The Springfield Republican that she was on stage when the evacuation order came.

While she was gathering her clothes, she said, the manager came up and told everyone, "I don’t care if you’re (expletive) naked or not, get out."

Don Treeger / Springfield Republican via AP

Gas company workers stand where a building was leveled by an explosion in downtown Springfield, Mass., on Friday.

"I feel lucky we got out," said the dancer, identified only as Debbie. She said all her work clothes were lost.

At a restaurant two blocks away, waitress Stephanie Simmons said the blast shocked customers.

"It rocked us so hard the windows smashed," she told The Springfield Republican. "It felt like an earthquake or a large explosion. There was pretty much chaos."

Officials at the news conference said that teams of inspectors would be sent to look at damaged buildings on Saturday, and there would likely be controlled demolition of those that were badly damaged to make the scene safe.

Meantime, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was assisting the city to provide shelter for people displaced by the explosion, Lt. Gov. Murray told reporters at the press conference. 

Springfield is the largest city in western Massachusetts with a population of about 150,000.

NBC News' Kari Huus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A Pennsylvania man is suing a strip club after a rough pole dance ruptured his bladder during his bachelor party.

A lawsuit filed last week says that in late November 2010 Patrick Gallagher, a resident of Lansdale, Pa., had been invited to lie on the stage at the Penthouse Club in Port Richmond, Pa., as part of its “Bachelor’s Package.”

That’s when one dancer shimmied up the pole, and “from a great height, she launched herself down onto his abdomen” with such force that she ruptured his bladder, Gallagher’s attorney Neil Murray told the Philadelphia Daily News.  

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The suit said the move resulted in severe pain for Gallagher that did not subside by the next morning. He went to the emergency room, and doctors discovered he had internal bleeding and a ruptured bladder that required surgery to correct.

Murray said that Gallagher also suffered nerve damage in his back and hip, the Daily News reported.

The lawsuit accuses the club of negligence and seeks at least $50,000 for medical costs, pain, humiliation and mental anguish.

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Gallagher’s lawsuit is one of several filed in recent years against the club, according to court records. The other lawsuits allege a beating by bouncers, a slip-and-fall injury, overserving of alcohol and the unauthorized use of a woman’s photographs in club advertisements.

Seven dancers and a manager at the club were also arrested last November on prostitution charges. 

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Three people were shot and killed and another injured by a dissatisfied patron of a strip club in Alabama late Thursday, police say.

Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes told NBC News the shooting happened at Teasers, a topless nightclub outside of Dothan, Ala.

Police arrested the alleged shooter, Ryan Clark Petersen, 22, at 7:30 a.m. CT and charged him with three counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder.

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Authorities received a call about a shooting around 11:30 p.m. Thursday. When deputies arrived on scene, they found four people who had been shot. 

Hughes said that a dispute erupted in the club after Petersen complained about a dancer's performance and began touching her. A club employee asked Petersen to leave and escorted him outside. Petersen then allegedly went to his car and retrieved a handgun and reentered the night club and opened fire.  

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The victims of the shooting included one of the club’s female dancers, a male employee and a male patron.

Hughes said police are not releasing the names of the victims until their families have been notified.

The nightclub, in the Wicksburg community just west of Dothan, is about 100 miles southeast of Montgomery.

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Ryan Grant, owner of the Flashdancer Cabaret, agreed to shut the club's doors for one year in order to settle a lawsuit with Arlington city officials.

A Texas strip-club owner accused of hiring a hit man to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and attorney Tom Brandt was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday.

According to an FBI criminal complaint, Grant, of Kennedale, offered to pay $10,000 for each murder.

Grant, 34, was reportedly angry with Cluck and the attorney after he agreed to close his strip club, Flashdancer Cabaret, for one year in order to settle a nuisance lawsuit filed by the city and the Texas attorney general.

Read the original report at NBCDFW.com

Grant sought to hire two Mexican hit men to kill Cluck and Brandt, according to affidavits. Court documents say that Grant went so far as to set up a meeting at which he met with a man about the murder-for-hire plot and provided pictures of Cluck and Brandt.

"Obviously, he's very, very, angry, and when I heard the facts from the FBI, obviously we were very concerned about it," Cluck said in April. "We're still concerned, but he is in federal custody and will remain that way for the foreseeable future."

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FBI Special Agent Matthew Wilkins testified during a detention hearing that an informant had contact with Grant on at least four occasions, beginning on April 3, and that there are audio and video recordings of some of those conversations.

According to the indictment, "during the next few days, Grant and the intermediary spoke via cell phones, and during those conversations Grant directed the intermediary to not proceed with the murders until they could meet to discuss the matter further. 

On April 9, 2012, the intermediary and Grant met at Grant's residence, where Grant confirmed that he wanted Mayor Cluck killed.  The intermediary left Grant's residence and Grant was arrested shortly thereafter."

Grant was arrested April 9, the same day he had ordered the hits on Cluck and Brandt.

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At the time of his arrest, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Grant's home and seized 22 firearms and nearly $150,000 in cash.

Grant now faces one count of murder-for-hire and one count of the unlawful transfer of a firearm for giving a Norinco semi-automatic rifle to an individual he knew to be a felon.

If convicted, each count carries a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The investigation is being conducted by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

NBCDFW.com's Scott Gordon, Randy McIlwain and Ben Russell contributed to this report.

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Two men and a woman were shot dead and two were wounded outside a Houston strip club early Wednesday, according to a report.

The Houston Chronicle said gunfire was heard at about 3:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m ET) in the city's southwest in a parking lot near the club.

The Houston Police Department told the paper that the three fatalities died at the scene and the two injured people were taken to a nearby hospital.

The Chronicle said police were trying to find out what caused the incident.

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An owner of an Arlington, Texas, strip club was charged Tuesday with trying to hire hit men to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and a city attorney involved in an ongoing legal fight with the bar.

Ryan Walker Grant, co-owner of Flashdancer, offered to pay $10,000 for each murder, an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint.

Flashdancer recently agreed to close for one year to settle a nuisance lawsuit filed by the city of Arlington and the Texas attorney general.

"They just jacked me for a year of business, and they're trying to jack me indefinitely," Grant was quoted as telling the supposed hit man, who was secretly cooperating with federal agents.

The FBI also said Grant requested that people from Mexico come to North Texas and commit the murders so they could quickly leave the country. He said he would use his child as an alibi, the complaint said.

The names of the city officials allegedly targeted were not mentioned in the court documents, but a city news release Tuesday night confirmed they were Mayor Cluck and contract city attorney Tom Brandt.

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Both expressed appreciation for the FBI investigation.

"I feel confident this case will be thoroughly investigated," Cluck said in the statement. "We as a city council must always act in the best interests of the city of Arlington. I believe we've done that and will continue to do so."

Grant was arrested Monday by FBI agents after he met with the supposed hit man at Grant's Kennedale home, according to the criminal complaint.

Grant appeared before a federal judge Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bond until a detention hearing on Friday.

The Drug Enforcement Administration was also involved in the investigation.

Steven Swander, a Fort Worth attorney who represented Grant in the city lawsuit, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Grant's father Ron said his son was upset about losing business but would never have tried to hurt anyone.

"Oh good Lord no, because as far as -- he was looking forward to re-opening," Ron Grant said. "He certainly didn't have any, you know, animosity -- well, he wasn't happy about it. But he didn't voice any desires to harm anyone about it, that's for sure."

Denver Police via AP, file

Mark Rubinson, 25, left, and Robert Young, 43, admitted to driving around Denver with their dead friend's corpse and using the dead man's debit card to fund a night at a strip club.

Updated at 7:16 a.m. ET: Two men who admitted to driving around Denver with their dead friend's corpse and using the dead man's debit card to fund a night at a strip club were sentenced on Thursday to probation, prosecutors said.

Robert Young, 43, and Mark Rubinson, 25, both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of abusing the corpse of Jeffrey Jarrett last August, the Denver District Attorney's Office said in a release.

Young also pleaded guilty to felony identity theft for using Jarrett's credit card.

Neither man was accused of killing Jarrett, who died at 43 from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol, Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office told Reuters.  

Under the plea agreement, Young was given a two-year deferred sentence and must undergo "mental health evaluation and treatment, substance abuse assessment and treatment, and cognitive behavioral therapy," the release said.

He also must submit to random drug and alcohol testing, perform 50 hours of community service and pay $1,289.56 in restitution, in addition to maintaining full-time employment.

Rubinson was given a one-year suspended sentence and was ordered to the same drug and alcohol monitoring, therapy and work conditions, and perform 200 hours of community service.

Mexican restaurant
Prosecutors said Young and Rubinson found Jarrett unresponsive at the Denver home Young and Jarrett shared, and instead of calling 911 they put the dead man in the back seat of Rubinson’s SUV and went for a ride, local television station KWGN reported.

Police said that the men ate at Viva Burrito restaurant and fueled up Rubinson's SUV at a convenience store all paid for with Jarrett's debit card, KWGN also reported. The men then unloaded Jarrett's body back at his house and visited Shotgun Willie's, a popular Denver-area strip club where they withdrew $400 at an ATM from Jarrett's account, it said.

Only after leaving the club did the men call the police to report Jarrett's death.

As conditions of their probationary sentence, both men must write letters of apology to Jarrett's family.

Prosecutor Kandace Gerdes told the judge that the plea deals "were largely the result of the (Jarrett) family's compassion," the district attorney's office said.

Denver TV station 7News compared to case to the 1989 movie "Weekend At Bernie's."

"The film is about two friends who arrive at their boss' beachfront home for a weekend getaway to find out their boss had been killed as the result of a mob hit," the website explained. "The two men then cart the body around town, hoping to save the weekend of luxury they had planned and hoping they don't raise any suspicions."

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Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Love them or hate them, strip joints have a timeless allure – but that didn’t stop one club from adopting a new strategy to lure men inside.

“It was harassment, it was constantly, every single day for awhile, sometimes more than once a day,” Bret Lusskin said.

He is talking about spam text messages he says he got from Tootsie’s Cabaret in Miami Gardens.

See video, read the original story at NBCMiami.com

“There’s no way to stop it, you just start getting text messages every single day and what are you gonna do?” Lusskin asked. “Something has to be done, and clearly they just unrepentantly took advantage of people that night, they never told anybody that it was a marketing ploy.”

Lusskin is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed against the club’s parent company, alleging that Tootsie’s “surreptitiously obtained” dozens of cell phone numbers from patrons by holding a contest. The winner received a Rolex. Participants just had to fill out a form and include their cell number.

“We allege that they advertised the watch in order to lure people into providing their cell phone numbers,” said attorney Scott Owens, who filed the suit.

Within days, Lusskin said, he started receiving the text ads. Over more than a year, he got more than 280 in all.

“I didn’t win anything, all I did was get freaking hundreds of text messages,” he said. “I would not have signed if it had told me that I was going to be getting bombarded by text message solicitations from them.”

The lawsuit alleges that what Tootsie’s did violates federal law, specifically the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which stipulates a $500 fine for every violation.

“With the 280 messages times a hundred people times $500 per message, you’re talking in excess of $10 million for this class action lawsuit,” Owens said.

Tootsie’s refused to comment on the issue. The club’s lawyer told NBC 6 it is company policy never to comment on pending litigation.

His court filings make clear that he does not think the suit has any merit. In them, he writes repeatedly that the defendants deny the allegations.

NBC 6 had no luck trying to bring a camera anywhere near the club, even while standing on public property nearby.

“Uh, you can’t point it at the front door, guys,” said a man in a suit who walked up to NBC 6’s team. He stood in front of the camera to block the shot.

If you text, there is a good chance you have received text spam, such as the junk cars message that is currently going around.

Priscilla Perez says her 12-year-old son got a text from Tootsie’s.

“I got mad, actually, and I felt like he was being violated,” she said. “How do you send him this message, 12 years old, come to Tootsie’s?”

Owens says if you get a junk text, do not respond to it. Instead, save it for evidence, and call the Federal Communications Commission to report it.

Lusskin said his texts from Tootsie’s stopped only after he sued the club.

“As we’ve seen in this case, it can get out of control, so someone has to stand against that tide before it turns into email spam, where it just proliferates to the point that text messaging is just useless,” he said.

More on the Web: Get information on how to file a complaint with the FCC here.

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