TARPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA, HAS a sizeable Greek community and each year at Greek Easter part of their celebration consists of detonating homemade explosives that pack more punch than puny firecrackers. This year however, one celebrant overdid it with the black powder package.
Early Sunday morning while the Orthodox Easter Services were underway in the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, around the corner on Tarpon Ave. a mighty explosion rocked The Zone, a restaurant/bar, and an apartment building. The Tampa Bay Times continues:
The Zone Lounge was crowded at the time of the explosion, said Tarpon Springs police Capt. Barbara Templeton, and many patrons were affected by flying glass and debris. At least two women were treated at the scene for lacerations.
The area was closed off for five hours while investigations proceeded.
The bomb detonated from atop a vacant building adjacent to and connected with the bar. Some apartments on the other side of the blast site also were seriously damaged, Templeton said, including windows blown out and glass and debris strewn across living rooms.
Patrons streamed out of the Zone Lounge, which authorities evacuated, some bleeding and many more "frightened out of their wits," she said.
The neighborhood quickly filled up with firetrucks and ambulances to check on the blast damages and treat the injured patrons. While medics were tending to some people who were cut by flying glass shards, one of them went back outside to get more supplies and found out that his ambulance was gone. The dispatch center quickly pinpointed its location via the GPS device and the police responded and found it abandoned by the water treatment plant.
They soon located a man inside who shouldn't have been there and ordered him out. As he approached, he was grasping two unidentfiable objects in each hand and refused to stop and get on the ground. Instead, he made "menacing" actions and advanced toward the officers who then gave him a Taser massage. After taking him into custody they learned that the objects were a flashlight and a potato. They also found a tomato in his pocket. When asked repeatedly to give his name, the ambulance driver told them he was "Spartacus", then he became "Maggie" and "Shadow." He was charged with grand theft, burglary, and resisting arrest with violence.
Spartacus awaits an alternative transportation mode.
At last word, the investigation into who set off the ka-boom was continuing.
The Tampa Bay Times has the STORY HERE.
ABC News has MORE HERE plus this video report:
* * *
Google Street View of The Zone and the vacant building
next door where the device was detonated. Two other
businesses to the right of the pub were damaged also.
A DEVASTATING EXPLOSION LEVELED A CHANDLER, Arizona, house late Sunday night and caused enough damage to the home next door that it was destroyed also.
KTVK / AzAce
The withering blast that was felt up to two miles away immediately pulverized the house that had nobody in it at the time. The resident who was not at home was located later this morning and he confirmed that there should be nobody in the house or its debris.
The police soon declared that the incident was "suspicious" based on some early evidence that they had, coupled with the fact that the home did not have any sort of gas service to it.
KTVK / Roscoe
AZCentral News filed this video report from the scene:
* * *
KTVK
Phoenix Channel 3 has filed this updated report just before 1 pm Eastern:
A full investigation is underway including agents from ATF. Already the investigators are telling the press that the explosion was intentional and not an accident.
KTVK-TV has more details, videos and a photo gallery HERE.
Doola Shipping, which operates the ship, said the explosion seems to have taken place while gas was being drained from the oil tank. "The vessel usually transports diesel, but this time it carried gasoline. We are now examining whether it had any relation to the explosion," a company official said.
Korea Coast Guard photo via Reuters
The explosion was not caused by any external shock, Coast Guard officials said, adding it suddenly occurred when some crew members were cleaning the oil tank on the deck. They will request a forensic test for the case, the officials said.
Apparently the gasoline had been offloaded at Incheon and it was the vapors in the tank that exploded. There was no product leaked into the sea as a result of the accident. An investigation is open to determine what happened.
Euro News posted this raw video showing a closeup view of the ship from sea level:
A MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, PLUMBER WAS KILLED in front of his own home Monday morning after he approached his work van and it exploded just before he got inside.
Joe Cosentino, 25, was leaving the house that he shares with his parents at 6:45 am and was close to the van when it blew, tossing him about 20 feet away with massive "blast type" injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, along with deep cuts from the flying debris and internal injuries from the force of the blast.
Cosentino primarily worked with refrigeration units and kept about seven tanks of gasses in his work truck. Neighbors say that they heard a loud hissing sound just moments before the explosion which was heard up to 3 miles away. The AAP reports:
Detective Senior Constable Mick Cashman from the arson and explosives squad praised passers-by who came to the young tradesman's aid. He was amazed no one else was killed.
"A number of people were out for their morning walk in the area and were very close to the explosion," he said. "The fact that a lot of those people tended to the victim in the immediate aftermath of the initial explosion is a credit to them and remarkably brave considering the vehicle was still experiencing a number of smaller explosions and eventually caught fire as well."
The explosion damaged windows and roofs on up to 20 nearby homes and was heard five kilometres away, Det Sen Const Cashman said. "The first fire brigade on scene actually heard the explosion from their shed," he said.
Cosentino went into cardiac arrest just after the ambulance arrived and they were able to restart him a few times, but he died in the hospital about 3 hours later.
The Age
The work safety agency and police are investigating the cause of the explosion. They are assuming there was a leak, but don't know yet what triggered it. They will also look into how the bottles were stored in the van.
TenNews posted this very good video report:
Read more details in the Sydney Morning HeraldHERE. The Age has MORE.
A FIRE IN A CATHEDRAL CITY, CALIFORNIA, STRIP MALL leveled half the shopping center early Tuesday morning after a presumed backdraft explosion blew out all the front windows and led to a roof collapse.
Desert Sun photo
A patrol car discovered the fire around midnight and turned in the alarm. The first-arriving units found heavy smoke in the building that has a common attic. It was shortly after the Cathedral City FD arrived that additional oxygen got into the smoke and triggered the blast that caused the structural damage. Aside from the blast, the fire was relatively easy to put out and had been extinguished an hour later.
While the investigation continues into what caused the fire, firefighters have pinned down where the blaze originated. They believe it began in the plaza's meat market. "Our original report was that it was at the carnaceria," said Cathedral City Fire Department Battalion Chief John Muhr. "A passerby which happened to be one our police officers drove by and saw the smoke, so we're pretty certain that we have a good idea of the origin."
It took firefighters about an hour to put out the fire. In the process four firefighters were in for a surprise. They were knocked off their feet by a back draft explosion that occurred in the strip malls' Chinese restaurant. "In the case of the fire last night, we had an attic that was filled of flammable smoke and it found an ignition source and the rest is history," said Muhr.
About 35 to 40 firefighters from Cathedral City, Palm Springs and CalFire fought the blaze.
KPSP-TV Ch. 2 posted some raw video from the scene:
The Desert Sun has the STORY plus an extensive photo gallery.
A THUNDERING EXPLOSION WAS HEARD AND FELT throughout the entire city of Atchison, Kansas, Saturday evening when a grain elevator blew up killing at least three workers. The blast at 7:15 pm sent up a fireball that was seen several miles distant from the Bartlett Grain Co. terminal on the banks of the Missouri River just south of the city.
The explosion blew the top off of the elevator.
(NPG News photo)
The latest report says that three people have been killed and three more are still missing. At least two others have been transported with severe burn injuries. The firefighters have had to stay away from the silo because of the possiblilty of a second explosion, but as daylight approaches they are making an approach to the site. It is their plan to begin digging through the rubble to search for the missing victims. Heavy equipment is being moved in to assist in the search.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department sent some units to assist at the incident 50+ miles away.
The Atchison Daily Globe has the STORY.
KMBC-TV Kansas City has MORE.
A MAJOR EXPLOSION LEVELED ONE BUILDING at a Surrey, England, recycling plant sending debris hundreds of feet in the air and shaking the entire neighborhood around the industrial park. Eight people were injured, four of them critically in the blast Monday just before noon that started a fire which burned for hours.
ITN image
The explosion occurred at 11:15 am in an area that is used for recycling ink cartridges and other IT-related items. When the first units from the Surrey Fire and Rescue Service arrived they found a "significant fire" in progress. A fire officer said that gas cylinders on the site were contributing to the problem and making firefighting efforts more difficult. The fire crews remained on the scene overnight working on the hot spots.
ITN captured and posted this raw video taken during the early stages of the incident:
The Daily Mail reports:
Three seriously injured workers were airlifted to major trauma centres in the region by helicopters from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Ambulance Service.
One was taken to King's College Hospital in London and two to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where they are stable in A&E and waiting to be transferred to a nearby burns unit.
Five people have been admitted to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill with minor burns and smoke inhalation.
Peter Burns, who works for Trichem, just two doors away from the suspected source of the explosion, described the panic when the blast happened.
'It was like a bomb had exploded,' he said. 'I ran straight out and there were bits floating in the air and flames coming from the building. There were a few guys staggering out from the building and away from the flames. There were people coming from all different units, gathering around the scene. The two blokes who were badly injured, I saw them and they were in a very bad way. They were out of the building being attended to and being given first aid (by other workers).'
The injured employees suffered from burns, respiratory problems, and head injuries. About 75 people in neighboring businesses were evacuated as a precaution.
There is no determination yet on the cause of the explosion.
The Daily Mail has a full report with more photos HERE.
BBC News has an update HERE.
A LYNDEN, WASHINGTON, MAN BECAME infuriated Sunday after a bee stung a friend of his. So in a display of loyalty and friendship the unamed man decided to retaliate against the creatures. He got a container of gasoline and poured it all over the beehive and then lit it off.
The thundering explosion was heard throughout the entire neighborhood and prompted a waitress at the nearby country club to call the FD.
The the fire department arrived there was no fire, but the tree housing the beehive was singed and as Lynden Fire Chief Gary Baar told the press, "No damage except for a bunch of dead bees. The correct way to do that is to call a beekeeper." The shaken man knows that now and police say that he will not be cited since "no harm, no foul."
THIEVES TRYING TO DISMANTLE an electric service line in Yorkshire, England, last week gave up on their effort and left the wires dangling at the rear of a block of rowhouses in Castleford. The situation came to the attention of the fire brigade around 1:30 am Friday, July 8 when they were called out for a series of several small fires behind the homes.
Realizing the imminent danger that the arcing wires were producing, the firefighters evacuated the entire block and got about 30 residents out of their sleep and into the street just moments before the hazard triggered an explosion that destroyed two houses and damaged four others.
West Yorkshire Fire – Rescue image
The firefighters had just removed the last two occupants who needed to be removed by ladders when the a large explosion occurred. This fire brigade video documentation of the incident captured the blast and you can see just how close they came to losing some firefighters:
A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service told the press: 'If the house had exploded only seconds earlier, there is no doubt in my mind that it would have killed or seriously injured the occupants and the firefighters who were risking their lives to rescue them. We can’t stress enough how devastating this could have been. Instead, they lost their homes and possessions rather than their lives. If people continue to tamper with equipment on the electricity network, it is only a matter of time before more people die.'
BBC News
A 27-yr.-old man has been arrested for implication in the crime and is still being held by Yorkshire Police. He has not yet been publicly identified and investigation may lead to more arrests.
A CONFINED EXPLOSION IN AN INDUSTRIAL SHOP killed five men instantly and critically injured a sixth Wednesday night in Lincolnshire, England. It is believed that they were operating an illegal "vodka factory" inside the small, rental unit in a Boston industrial park and the unit was closed up to deter observation when the still blew up violently at 7:30 pm.
Metro Online
People living up to five miles away heard the blast that warped the rollup door preventing immediate access by the fire brigade. The East Anglian Daily Timesreports:
Steve Moore, area manager from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service, said a total of six fire engines were sent to the scene.
"When the first crews attended they were faced with a really serious fire and a casualty who was outside the building suffering from burns," he said. "The incoming crew then started to fight the fire, it was a really hot, intense fire."
The officer said the fierce flames set alight a car outside the unit and also buckled its roller shutters, meaning crews were forced to use hydraulic equipment to cut their way into the block.
"At that point we received further information that there may be further casualties," he added. Mr Moore said six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the unit and found five further casualties.
Neighbors say that there have been complaints and concerns about a group of Polish nationals that were suspected of operating the large still making counterfeit vodka and supplying local liquor outlets.
Some 25% of Boston's 30,000 population is believed to be from Russia, Eastern Europe and also Portugal. Several people thought to be Eastern Europeans arrived at the scene of the blast asking about the identities of casualties.
Counterfeit vodka was found in the town in co-ordinated raids in March. A total of 88 litres of potential illegal alcohol was seized. Gary Seymour, assistant head of Lincolnshire's trading standards department, said: "Some of the illegally-made vodka has been found to contain high levels of methanol, which is used to make anti-freeze and some other fuels. Drinking it can cause blindness."
The industrial park has a mix of large, heavy industry and smaller shops working with metal and wood products.
BBC News has the details HERE.
The Daily Mail has MORE. Metro has more HERE.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA, FIREFIGHTERS were called out shortly after 3 am Wednesday for what neighbors said was an explosion at a house in Lake Worth. When they arrived on the scene, the FD found a house fully involved but with the two residents safely outside.
WPTV-TV Ch. 5 filed this early video taken from their helicopter:
The Palm Beach Post adds:
John Pyke, who was in the house at the time of the fire, said he was awoken by an explosion and parts of the ceiling falling on him.
"I woke up, I pushed the debris off and pushed my way to the front door," Pyke said.
Unsure whether his sister was inside of the home or not, Pyke said he banged on the windows until he learned that she was safe next door. After that, he and his neighbor grabbed hoses and tried putting out the fire themselves until crews arrived.
The house and its contents were completely destroyed with parts of the building found as far as 200 feet away.
Palm Beach Post
Early indications point to a gas line that ran through the attic, but more investigation is needed.
AN EARLY-MORNING EXPLOSION at a battery recycling plant in Feurs, France, has killed two workers and injured two more.
All photos Claude Essrtel via Le Progres
The problem arose at 4:45 am Saturday inside a smelter building of the Valdi FeursMetal company when some hot water and steam began leaking from a furnace. The employees left the building and reported it to the maintenance staff, bringing two of them to the building. Shortly after the two workers, ages 29 and 55, entered the area, the furnace exploded with a violence that heavily damaged the building and killed the two repairmen.
***
The railway line linking Saint-Etienne to Roanne, which is adjacent to the smelter was closed after the accident due to debris on the tracks, was reopened shortly after 10 o'clock.
"We must now bring in an expert and the labor inspector for the findings on the spot", which is the usual procedure in case of accident, said the prosecutor.
Sixty firefighters and twenty engines were dispatched to the site along with a dozen policemen, before the danger was reduced by mid-morning. The amount of fire damage was very small.
THREE VICTIMS OF AN EXPLOSION in a Livermore, California, apartment unit were burned so badly that they could not be identified Saturday evening. The Livermore-Pleasanton FD arrived on the scene in six minutes where they found fire showing from the apartment and the three victims outside in extreme distress.
Firefighters found three critically burned individuals outside of an apartment with fire and smoke continuing to come from the apartment. As crews worked to extinguish the blaze, others provided emergency aid to the injured with American Medical Response ambulances taking the injured to Livermore High School, where they were transferred to three medical helicopters waiting at the scene to airlift them to burn centers.
Two men, one believed to be in his 20's and one believed to be in his 30's, were transported to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. A woman believed to be in her 20's, was transported to the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The fire was extinguished in 20 minutes and was contained to the apartment where the explosion occurred. The other units of the 5-unit building have been evacuated until engineers can assess the safety of the structure.
A VERY LOUD EXPLOSION ON a Paris, France, high-rise apartment building brought the neighborhood to a halt Thursday. Some workmen were doing repair work on the terrace of an upper-level apartment shortly after noon when a compressed gas bottle blew up and started a fire in the apartment.
Cell photo by Patrick Bunot / Le Parisien
The gas cylinder became a missile flying 600 feet away to land in a gasoline station. The explosion led to self-evacuations of the surrounding buildings while people poured into the street to view the spectacle.
The fire brigade arrived and extinguished the apartment fire readily. Amazingly, nobody was injured in the incident.
This raw video from Franck Lassagne has a good view of the burning apartment unit:
DENVER, COLORADO, FIREFIGHTERS were called out Thursday morning around 1:30 am local time when neighbors reported hearing a violent explosion in a commercial district. When they arrived on the scene the FF's found fire showing from a warehouse-type occupancy and a 2nd alarm was struck.
KDVR-TV
The first units entered the building on a primary search and they found a man with thermal burns laying inside. The man who is believed to have been living in the shop, was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
The business appeared to be related to auto repairs of some sort and contained several acetylene and oxygen bottles. The fire officer had the FF's withdraw from the structure that already had a parial collapse from the initial explosion. There was debris as far away as 100 yards. The fire was knocked down in about an hour, but units remained on the scene for several hours working on the hot spots.
KWGN-TV Ch. 34 filed this video report:
KMGH-TV has more HERE.
KDVR-TV has a further report and more video HERE.
Updated, Sunday pm:
The most seriously injured FF in the hospital remains in critical condition in the ICU with extensive burns and trauma received from the blast. He is being treated in the burn unit at a military hospital near Paris. One firefighter has been released and the other three are still hospitalized in "satisfactory" condition.
FIVE FIREFIGHTERS IN PARIS, FRANCE, were injured, with three of them in serious condition with burns, when an explosion occurred in the basement of a building where they were working a fire.
Le Monde
The building housed a bar/restaurant on the ground floor with several floors above occupied with apartments. The fire brigade was called at 3:40 am Saturday morning for a fire in the basement and when they arrived they stretched a hand line there and began attacking the blaze. It was then that an explosion took place (believed to be gas-fueled) causing the injuries. Besides the three serious injuries, two other FF's and a police officer had less-serious injuries. Also the couple who run the bar were hurt, too.
The blaze, whose origin will be determined by the investigation, occurred at about 3:40 in the basement of an apartment building located at 38 Rue Sorbier. It has been (brought under control) by 6 o'clock in the morning and eleven people were evacuated as a precaution, said the prefecture of police.
"A little before 3:50, we took a fire", said Lieutenant-Colonel Le Testu. The alarm was raised by a resident of the 5th floor who reported a smell of smoke in this building, whose ground floor is occupied by a bar. "The rescuers quickly located the fire in the basement of the building, "said the spokesman. But "a few minutes after the arrival of (the firefighters), a violent explosion occurred in the basement and blew out the window of the bar on the ground floor, injuring eight people,"said the officer.
Contrary to initial indications, the explosion was "probably not due to gas, the supply having been cut," said the spokesman. They are more likely attributable to a thermal [sic] even though it must be established by the investigation.
A driver in Turkey has been hailed as a hero after leaping into action when a fuel tanker he was unloading caught fire at a petrol station.
This CCTV footage shows the terrifying moment flames shoot up out of the top of the tanker and everyone runs away. Everyone except Koçak, that is.
Realising a massive explosion could take out the entire station, Koçak jumped back into the burning vehicle and drove it 1km to safety.
As he drives off, leaking fuel can be seen catching light and it took 60 fire fighters to extinguish the subsequent flames which caused much damage.
Several witnesses have since congratulated Koçak and say his heroic actions saved many peoples lives. We are not sure the word hero quite does him justice.
Speaking after the accident Koçak said: “The fuel tank went up in flames instantly. At that moment, I said, ‘Let something happen to me, instead of the people nearby,’ and got behind the wheel.
“The tank turned into a ball of flames, but I managed to take it to a secure place. But some cars were burned as a result of the flames jumping from the tank.”
AN EXPLOSION THAT TRIGGERED A LARGE FIRE in Middleton, Massachusetts, Sunday night created a potentially hazardous threat to the Ipswich River from firefighting runoff. The blast hit an adhesive factory owned by Bostik, Inc. that was filled with large quantities of several chemicals used in the glue-making process.
WHDH-TV
Four people were injured by the event, but their conditions have not been released yet. The Boston Heraldadds:
The blast caused heavy damage inside Bostik, a company that manufactures glue as well as other chemicals for industrial uses, state police said. The state fire marshal declared a tier-three hazardous material response, due to the toxins in the plant.
“It’s a serious event from the fire marshal’s perspective,” said Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Judge. “Initially there was an explosion that many people thought was an earthquake. There wasn’t a significant fire, but there was some fire involved.”
He said firefighters are now accounting for the chemicals in the plant, checking to see if their containers have been damaged, and making sure none of them are in danger of contaminating the area around the plant.
This good video report from WHDH-TV includes some aerial views that show significant damage to the plant:
The explosion shook homes in the vicinity for several seconds causing some worry by the residents. The Boston Globereports:
Boston Street resident Beverly Peterson, in a telephone interview, reported hearing “a big bang’’ from the direction of the Bostik campus. “We’re really concerned,’’ said Peterson. “We saw a bunch of ambulances head down toward the plant.’’
Another local resident, Amy Fuller, said she thought a tree fell on her house as she was putting her kids to bed. She said her house shook for 40 seconds. “It shook [the house] like an earthquake,’’ she said.
SHORTLY AFTER NOON Central TODAY (Tuesday) A SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS led to a fire at a Texas natural gas production facility. A pipeline within the Enterprise Products plant blew up and product within the line started burning leading to about 12 more explosions and more product exposed to the fire.
KHOU-TV
The pipelines leading into the facility have been shut off and the residual chemicals and liquids that are used in natural gas production are being allowed to burn off. The responding fire departments are protecting the exposures while the fire burns. A spokesman for Enterprise says that the lines were operating under capacity, so it won’t take as long as otherwise to burn out.
Enterprise officials say that there are usually about 8 to 10 employees working there at that time, but one of them who is believed to have been in the area of the explosion is still unaccounted for.
KHOU-TV has filed this interesting raw video that shows some exposures igniting from the convection:
The Houston Chronicle tells: The facility in Chambers County is a natural gas fractionation facility, where natural gas liquids are separated into different components before being put into storage or injected into pipelines. It has a capacity of about 305,000 barrels of natural gas liquids per day. Recently, it has become an important hub to oil and gas producers in South Texas’ Eagle Ford shale formation, where large quantities of natural gas liquids are being extracted and processed for usage by Gulf Coast petrochemical plants and other customers.
A LEALMAN (PINELLAS COUNTY), FLORIDA MAN is in critical condition Monday morning following an explosion in an apartment that burned him over 30% of his body. The small apartment was on the top floor of a 2-story building and located over a vacant business occupancy.
Mike MacLeod, 27, was periodically checking on a friend’s apartment while he was out of town and he stopped by early Sunday morning to see if everything was ok. When he opened the door, however, a destructive explosion occurred that blew the roof off of the apartment and knocked down one of the walls. MacLeod went running down the street to a gas station and called for help.
WFTS-TV
The Lealman Fire Department responded and found a well-involved fire in the building. Paramedics treated MacLeod and transported him to a Tampa hospital where he is being treated for the burns. He has been placed in an induced coma, but is expected to recover.
WFTS-TV Ch. 28 has this video report from the scene:
Arson investigators spent all day Sunday looking for the cause, but they have not released any information yet.
Update: Store owner rescued, seriously injured. More video added. Scroll down.
Update, Thursday am: Other two people found dead late Wednesday night. Scroll down.
A DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSION INSIDE a furniture store in Wayne, Michigan, caused an immediate collapse of the center portion of the building.
WJBK-TV
The blast occurred at 9 am Eastern time and it is believed that anywhere from 2 to 5 people are trapped in the rubble. The William C. Franks Furniture store is literally destroyed in what the City Manager said to be a natural gas explosion. The Wayne Fire Department responded to the scene and the area USAR team is working the collapse. Search dogs have also been called to the location.
Update: A recent report says that one person has been rescued from the building and has been transported to a burn unit.
WXYZ-TV Ch. 7 Detroit has this early report from the scene:
The store occupies slightly more than a half-city block and has been in business for 44 years.
This is still a working incident. Firegeezer will be updating during the day.
Update, 2:30 pm: The store’s owner, Paul Franks is the first person to be recovered from the collapsed building. He was found fairly soon into the operation and was transported to the University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center in Ann Arbor where he is listed in critical condition. There are two others believed to be trapped inside, a secretary and a salesman.
Shawn Bell, deputy chief fire marshal for the city of Wayne, said rescuers are inside the partially collapsed store doing a systematic hand-to-hand search for the victims. He would not confirm how many are still believed to be inside.
“There’s a lot of danger of further collapse, so we have to take precautions for the rescuers in there,” Bell said.
He added that crews were using listening devices to detect any sounds from the victims as well as calling cell phones of those believed to have been inside the building at the time of collapse. So far, there has been no response. Canine search and rescue teams were on the way, he said.
Most of the initial fires were extinguished, but there are still hot spots inside that firefighters are extinguishing, he said.
The Associated Press is relaying that the cars of the two people believed missing are parked next to the store. Some other employees are on the scene assisting rescuers by indicating areas where they were most likely to be at the time of the explosion.
“We’re pretty sure natural gas is involved,” Consumers Energy spokeswoman Debra Dodd said. The utility received a call of a possible gas leak in the area several hours before the blast and a worker had been trying to track down the source when the explosion took place, Dodd said. She said the gas main to the building has been shut off and that another line in the area would be closed as a precaution.
Jennifer Gietzen, 36, who co-manages an auto repair shop with her husband about a block from the furniture store, said the smell of natural gas was “overwhelming.”
Firefighters, police, emergency search crews and the Department of Homeland Security responded to the scene within minutes. They came from Inkster, Garden City, Canton, Farmington Hills, Taylor, Romulus and Dearborn Heights.
Search and rescue teams came from Oakland and Washtenaw counties.
As the day wore on, searchers dug gingerly through the rubble, bringing out piles a little at a time for dogs to sniff. City Manager John Zech said rescue crews had to approach the search carefully, in case of further collapse. Wayne Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal Shawn Bell said rescuers were hoping to find signs of life in crevices and gaps created by debris landing at angles.
“It’s a very slow and tedious process,” Bell said. “A lot of the debris removal is being done by hand.”
Fire Chief Mel Moore said the search had been complicated by the weight of the building’s concrete roof trusses.
“We’re pretty sure natural gas is involved,” Consumers Energy spokeswoman Debra Dodd said.
The utility received a call of a possible gas leak in the area several hours before the blast and a worker had been trying to track down the source when the explosion took place, Dodd said. She said the gas main to the building has been shut off and that another line in the area would be closed as a precaution.
Jennifer Gietzen, 36, who co-manages an auto repair shop with her husband about a block from the furniture store, said the smell of natural gas was “overwhelming.”
This home video was taken in the area just prior to the first engine’s arrival:
This raw video just filed by WSYR-TV has an aerial view of the labor-intensive search that is underway:
Update, Thursday 6 am: The bodies of the two missing employees were both located between 7:30 pm and 10 pm Wednesday night. First found was the 64-yr.-old salesman and 2-½ hours later the female employee, reported to be the store’s secretary, was located. Both had perished in the collapse. The store owner, Paul Franks remains in the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor, however his condition has been upgraded from critical to serious-but-stable.
Firefighters, police, emergency search crews and the Department of Homeland Security responded to the scene within minutes. They came from Inkster, Garden City, Canton, Farmington Hills, Taylor, Romulus and Dearborn Heights. Search and rescue teams came from Oakland and Washtenaw counties.
As the day wore on, searchers dug gingerly through the rubble, bringing out piles a little at a time for dogs to sniff. City Manager John Zech said rescue crews had to approach the search carefully, in case of further collapse. Wayne Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal Shawn Bell said rescuers were hoping to find signs of life in crevices and gaps created by debris landing at angles.
Free Press / Mitchell
“It’s a very slow and tedious process,” Bell said. “A lot of the debris removal is being done by hand.” Fire Chief Mel Moore said the search had been complicated by the weight of the building’s concrete roof trusses.
Consumers Energy, the gas utility that serves the area was first notified of a possible leak in the area around 6:15 a.m. and again an hour and a half later. The explosion happened during the investigation of the second call.
The Associated Press has filed this summary video report this morning:
WJBK-TV Ch. 2 has provided this video report with comments by neighbors affected by the blast:
A MAN WAS KILLED AND TWO OTHERS INJURED Tuesday in South Bend, Indiana, when an explosion occurred while he was welding.
South Bend Tribune
The South Bend Tribune tells:
Fire officials say 45-year-old Jonathan Atkinson, of South Bend, was found dead at the scene and two other people suffered from burns and smoke inhalation during the explosion and subsequent fire in a machine shop at the Green Tech Transfer and Recycling Station at 2400 Green Tech Drive.
Just before 11:30 a.m., the South Bend Fire Department received a call of an explosion at the recycling center, located at the corner of Eckman and Green Tech Drive, near the Southside Little League fields on Ewing Avenue. Fire Chief Howard Buchanon said crews arrived to find the explosion had sparked a small fire, which was nearly subdued by the time firefighters arrived.
The fire marshal says that when the explosion happened Atkinson was doing some welding work on a fuel tank of some sort. They are not yet certain whether it was the welding torch that triggered the blast. A second man was standing nearby and was injured by the explosion. Another man was just outside the entrance and was hurt by the smoke and flames when he ran inside to help. Both men were transported to the hospital to be treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
WNDU-TV Ch. 16 has this video report with footage from the accident scene:
The fire was handled easily and quickly by the FD and resulted in only $10,000 in property damage. The recycling center sits on a former brownfield site that once housed a Studebaker manufacturing plant.. The company receives materials including scrap metal, electronic appliances and road asphalt, and sorts the materials for recycling.
A LARGE EXPLOSION CENTERED UNDER THE LOBBY FLOOR of a newly-built resort hotel in Cancun, Mexico, caused extensive damage and killed at least seven people.
AFP
The blast occurred at 9 am local time Sunday morning while guests were gathering at the breakfast buffet and starting their day. The Grand Princess Riviera Hotel, which was built just four years ago, was largely populated with Canadian visitors including a large wedding party of several dozen.
The incident has all the indications of a natural gas explosion, but there is no gas service in that area. The blast originated under the lobby floor, sending the flooring up through the ceiling. The Toronto Starreports:
Carson Arthur, 39, of Toronto, said in a telephone interview from the resort that “all of the air was sucked out of every open door, every room and then pushed back at a huge rate. The velocity of the air coming back was incredible, so people were thrown around all over the place in the rooms and hallways,” he said. “There were several people in the debris; there were a lot of people wounded from flying glass.”
AFP
Initial investigations were focusing on the possibility that naturally occurring gas from a nearby swamp had built up under the hotel and somehow ignited, said Francisco Alor, attorney general of Quintana Roo, where the resort is located.
“The report suggests an accumulation of gases produced by decomposing organic material in the subsoil, and this gas produced the explosion,” Alor said. “Expert examiners and civil defence personnel will have to determine if the underground space filled with swampy water that remained in this zone when the building was constructed four years ago, could have generated this type of gases.”
A vacationing news reporter from a Canadian radio station grabbed some cellphone video from his balcony just minutes after the blast:
I’m confident in saying that, at least we know better than to store our old artillery shells in a smokehouse. But anybody who has been in the fire or EMS business for more than four hours knows that there are a lot of people “out there” who don’t know the basics like that. I was reading yesterday about a young man in Virginia who became the victim of such a folly and died Sunday following an incident that left him fatally injured.
This brief quote from the Martinsville Bulletin sums it up pretty well:
Venable, 25, was declared dead Sunday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, a spokesperson said. Before he was injured during an explosion Thursday on Hobson Road in Axton, Venable had been a student of Coplin’s at National College. The explosion, which happened as Venable and three others were burning wood behind a home, was caused when the fire reached military munitions that were inside an old smokehouse, officials have said. The 105mm projectile likely had been there more than a decade, Henry County Fire Marshal Rodney Howell said over the weekend.
An earlier story in the Bulletin (HERE) gives a more detailed account of the incident explaining that the little trash fire they had set had gotten away from them and was started to burn the surrounding brush, spreading toward the decrepit outbuilding. The smokehouse had been on the site for decades and was falling down to the point that “a good wind would have blown it over,” a neighbor told the Bulletin.
Investigators found an 8-inch-long device that looks like a short missile, with a peaked nose and threads where it was screwed on top of an explosive shell, Howell said Friday evening. The shell was what exploded, and pieces of its casing were found at the scene, he said. The device, which would normally have been shot out of artillery, was found about 50 feet from the shed where the explosion occurred.
Local firefighters wet down the remains of the
destroyed smokehouse. (Martinsville Bulletin)
When the trash fire first started spreading, somebody made the phone call to 9-1-1 reporting the brush fire and thus activated the fire department’s involvement in the incident. Two minutes after the initial call, another call was placed to dispatch reporting the explosion.
There are two obvious lessons here, and I’m sure you have already figured out that, 1) we never really know what lays just ahead in a fire incident, and 2) you can never, ever presume anything….such as “it’s just a broken-down old outbuilding.” And there’s one more glaring reminder for us. Looking at the photo of the local FF’s, I am left shaking my head in exasperated wonder. These guys already knew that at least one explosion had occurred, and yet they still failed to don any protective clothing or equipment whatsoever. Who’s to say there won’t be another one? Oh, that’s right…. one of them did pause to put on the mandatory orange vest. As Chief Bill G. says, “WTF?”!!!
This ought to be the topic for everybody’s 5-minute drill in the day room today. Be aware…stay alert….and think, dammit!
Ok, our next bit of thinking should be directed to getting this equipment checked out. I’m going to get the coffee started. See you back in the day room in a little while.
AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE SHORTLY BEFORE NOON today (Tuesday) at Kilgore Flares Co. in Toone, Tennessee injured six people, three of them critically. Kilgore Flares, the largest worldwide manufacturer of “air launched expendable infrared decoys” according to the official website, produces military grade decoy flares used in aerial combat and to defend against guided missles.
The fire was contained to one building in the complex, but the cause of the blast has not yet been determined. The flash fire put itself out immediately but a residual fire was allowed to burn inside the explosive-laden building until it goes out. As of 5 pm it was still smoldering. Several helicopters and ambulances were dispatched to the scene, but only the six victims were transported.
This aerial view from WMC-TV shows the damaged building (center).
Toone is about 75 miles northeast of Memphis. The Associated Press has an early REPORTand has filed this video report:
Fox13 News has a later report and additional video HERE.
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