AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE IN AN ELKHART, INDIANA, apartment unit Thursday morning has sent two people to the hospital with extensive burns.

Shortly before 5 am this morning the blast rocked the apartment building where two people, a man and a woman, lived in what police believe to be a meth lab.  While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, they are working on that suspicion and have requested assistance from the Indiana State Police Clandestine Lab Team while they await a search warrant for the property.

The Elkhart Truth

The Elkhart Truth has an early report and a video HERE.

This story will be updated when more information is released.

AN UPSTATE NEW YORK HOUSE in Johnstown was blown into pieces and burned up on Monday evening.

Around 7 pm a violent explosion rocked the neighborhood and people came out to see the Elmwood Ave. home scattered all over with the remainder of it burning intensely.  The home had three residents, a couple and their son.  The boy managed to get out through a bedroom window, but his parents were trapped beneath the collapsed building.  Two people next door rushed over to rescue them by digging through the bricks and debris and pulling them out before the FD arrived.

The two adults, Mike and Debbie McGrail, were airlifted to University Hospital in Syracuse with what was believed to be non-life-threatening burns and injuries.

Investigators have determined the cause to have been an accidental ignition of propane that had leaked from a tank at the rear of the house.  The McGrails were in the basement searching for the leak when the explosion occurred.

The Schenectady Daily Gazette has the STORY.

WXXA Ch. 23 Albany has this video report:

THE SECURITY VIDEO THAT SHOWS THE EXPLOSIVES-LADEN TRUCK that destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan on Saturday was released today.

UPI photo

The heavily-reported suicide bomb directly caused the deaths of more than 50 people and injured more than 250.  The blast sent a shock wave into the building and ruptured compressed gas tanks in the hotel kitchen, starting a ferocious fire that quickly spread throughout the entire 5-story hotel.

The tape shows the truck, which was disguised as a construction vehicle, attempting to ram through the security barrior in front of the building.  After two failed attempts, the driver then sets a smaller explosive off that starts a fire in the truck’s engine compartment (continue watching through the video).

In a few minutes the fire spreads to the rear load area which contained an estimated 500 pounds of high explosives mixed with incendiary aluminum powder which then detonate.  The blast crater left from the truck is 24 feet deep and 60 feet across.  If the driver had been able to get the vehicle into the building there would have been instant, total destruction.

It is now being considered that the target of the bombing was the Pakistani government itself.  A state dinner including the president, prime minister, and many cabinet ministers was supposed to be held in the hotel at that time, but was moved at the last minute to another location.

CNN International has the video and a report:

AT AN INDUSTRIAL SITE IN HATTINGEN, GERMANY, a backhoe operator struck a World War II bomb that was embedded in the earth and had never exploded.  Around 10 am local time, his machine detonated the American 500-lb. bomb and sent parts, dirt and a shock-wave throughout the neighborhood.

Wiebold TV

The backhoe operator suffered multiple cuts and a concussion from the blast, but appears to be in satisfactory condition.  16 other people were injured, most of them from shock-wave concussion.  One person was struck by a falling piece of metal.

Parts of the bomb were found as far as 1,500 ft. away and chunks of dirt landed more than a mile away.  The construction has been halted and the entire area will be searched carefully over the weekend to see if there are any more duds in the building area.

The Hattingen Fire Brigade and many units from the rescue service are on the scene.

Source:  Der Westen
Wiebold TV has some raw video taken after the FD arrived HERE.
Hat Tip to Christian L.

AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE AT A WEAPONS PLANT in southern Arkansas Wednesday afternoon killed one worker.

The 1,200-acre facility in Camden is owned by Aerojet, a Defense Dept. contractor.  A company spokesman said that employees were involved in the routine manufacturing process of a rocket motor when an “unplanned ignition” occurred aroung 3:15 pm.  The blast started a fire that was not contained until after dark and still had spot fires throughout the night.

About 450 people were working in the plant at the time and they were all evacuated safely.  The fire department was not able to recover the victim during the night because of unsafe conditions.  They will resume the search for him today.

KTVH Ch. 11 in Little Rock has the STORY.
KTVH also filed this video report:

A KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, MAN LITERALLY BLEW UP HIS chances to be nominated for Father-of-the Year Sunday night.  He was mixing up a batch of meth in the kitchen of his house where he lives with a woman and four children, when the recipe became unstable and blew up the kitchen.

The woman went running out of the house, screaming with burns on her back, legs and arms.  The considerate man joined her in abandoning the one girl who was home at the time and he jumped on a bike and pedaled away.  As the little girl described, “with his feet on fire.”  He finally pulled in to a hospital about 3 miles away and turned himself in to the ER.

There was apparently no residual fire in the house beyond the damage from the explosion.  All four children are now being cared for by relatives.

WOOD-TV has the STORY.

THE LIVINGSTON, NEW YORK, FIRE DEPARTMENT responded to a propane leak call Sunday around 11 am in the town of Gallatin, Columbia County.  Just as the first-in engine pulled up in front, the house exploded violently and started burning.

Poughkeepsie Journal photo

The explosion rocked the entire neighborhood and demolished the entire house.  Firefighters immediately pulled three adults out of the burning rubble, all of whom were conscious.  The three victims were a couple in their 60’s who live there with their grown son who is in his 40’s.  Two of them were flown to a burn center and the third was transported by ambulance.

A 200-lb. propane tank next to the house was still intact as the FD was trying to determine what ignited the gas.  The family had been away on vacation and arrived home to find the house filled with the gas when they called the FD.

The Daily Freeman has the STORY.

Globe and Mail image

Coroner’s officials are on the scene of the Sunrise Propane devastation investigating the body found early this morning at the site.  While the fatality hasn’t been identified yet, it is believed to be that of a Sunrise employee who has been missing since the blast and fire destroyed the entire complex.

While most of the 12,000 evacuees have been allowed to return home, about 100 houses are still uninhabitable.

Mayor David Miller held a news conference this morning and he stated that he is taking immediate measures to see that the zoning laws are changed to allow the city to prohibit such dangerous occupancies to build in residential areas.

Sunrise built their plant just four years ago taking advantage of outdated zoning regulations that were in force before Toronto annexed the North York community several years ago.  The final report on the explosion won’t be ready for several months, Miller said.

At last count, six people were transported to hospitals, 18 more were treated at an emergency clinic and 40 were treated on the scene by FD paramedics.  The only fatalities known so far are the one found this morning and one firefighter, District Chief Robert Leek who collapsed and died at the fire scene Sunday morning.

CTV has a 13-minute raw video of the incident taken after daylight from a helicopter HERE.

CTV

 It is coming out that anytime the city tried to upgrade the zoning regulations, the compressed gas lobbying groups would take them to court and have them overturned because they were in conflict with Provincial law.  The provincial legislature never permitted the cities to protect themselves from dangerous occupancies.

The Globe and Mail has a background article on how the zoning mess came about and why it hasn’t been updated HERE.