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Tag: blast

  • New Jersey Explosion Leaves One Dead, 55 Homes Damaged

    On Tuesday, an explosion in a New Jersey condominium development left one person dead and seven workers injured.

    According to local authorities, the blast occurred at the Ewing Township “after a gas line was damaged by contractors who were digging in the area.”

    A spokeswoman for the Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) utility company said that workers arrived at the scene around 11:45 a.m. to fix the issue. A few minutes later, utility workers were complaining about a stench in the air.

    Nearly an hour later the gas line exploded and damaged 55 nearby homes in the complex.

    Reports say that around 1 p.m. the explosion sent flames and fragments soaring into the sky. A fire also followed and soon local residents in the area were dialing 911.

    One witness by the name of Matt told a CBS Philadelphia reporter that he was blown off his feet nearly 50 feet away.(image)

    “I was getting off my couch … I got up, and there’s was just this very loud explosion,” he said, according to CBS News. “Right after that, my front door – glass door -got shattered. And I kinda flew back … from the explosion.”

    The man stated that he suffered a hand injury from the explosion.

    A local Trenton hospital was treating five patients with burn wounds, in which two also suffered from concussions. Two PSE&G employees were injured by the blast, but are said to be suffering from minor wounds.

    The victim’s body was found in the wreckage outside the home where the explosion occurred. Witnesses say that the house was completely immersed in flames.

    The person has yet to be identified by investigators.

    Ewing Police Lt. Ron Lunetta told the Los Angeles Times that the aftermath was quite “devastating” to see. He then added that at least the explosion occurred during the daytime when few people were in the area.

    The video below shows raw footage of the aftermath:

    Image via YouTube

  • Omaha Explosion Claims the Lives of Two Workers

    An explosion at an Omaha, Neb., factory left two dead and ten hospitalized on Monday morning.

    Thirty-eight staff members were working at the International Nutrition animal-feeding plant when a sudden explosion knocked out the lights in the building.

    Authorities are clueless to what may have caused the incident but reported that witnesses saw the back wall of the building collapse.

    Thirty-eight-year-old Kendrick Houston was working on the main floor when he noticed a tremble from beneath the building’s floor. He reported to the Omaha World-Herald  that the event happened so fast that he and another co-worker immediately reacted and ran for the exit.

    “There was this real loud crackling sound, and the lights went off. I saw a spark, and there was a big ball of flame coming from the southwest corner of the building,” he said.

    According to a Fox News report via the Associated Press, 21-year-old Nate Lewis was working on the first floor when he heard the explosion. He resorted to using his cell phone light to crawl outside to safety. Shaken up by the events, Lewis even made a statement that he believes he won’t be returning back to his job as a production line worker.(image)

    Omaha’s Fire Chief Bernie Kanger asserts that no hazardous chemicals played a part in the blast, but due to safety risks, the wreckage has yet to be removed.

    Kanger also insists that his team are taking their time to sift through the rubble left by the explosion.

    “We haven’t cleared the building yet because of the significant risk to our people,” Kanger told AP.

    Seven injured workers have refused medical treatment while nineteen others have yet to be accounted for.

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still investigating the reason behind the explosion.

    Kanger confirms that the death toll may rise in numbers as the fire department and search-and-rescue experts continue their search through the debris.

    Image via Youtube

  • Riverside Explosion Destroys House in California

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    On Friday at 4:18AM, the fire station in the Southern California city of Riverside got a call about an explosion that leveled a house and shook the earth on Cochise Drive. The irruption was so powerful that it ended up igniting another home and damaging another. Fortunately, no one was injured from the blast, despite neighbors getting a rude wakeup call.

    Firefighters arrived on the scene and found the house “completely blown up,” Captain Bruce Vanderhorst told ABC7 News. The home was reduced to a pile of burnt black scraps surrounded by mangled metal; a fountain of flames spitting in the center.

    Eight fire trucks were called in on the scene to extinguish the flames emitting from the burst gas meter.

    The house was undergoing renovation and was left vacant. One firefighter on the scene commented that, “the last three days the house has been under renovation. The last three days they have been working on it [and] restoring it. For that, we don’t know [what caused it] – our arsenal team is on [the] scene and they’ll be doing an investigation.”

    According to ABC News, the Southern California Gas Company officials said that a preliminary investigation determined the gas main pipeline and service line up in the gas meter were in safe operational condition with no detection of leakage.

    Vanderhorst believes that the cause of the explosion was due to gas building up inside the house.

    “We heard an explosion, and we got out of our bed, and when I came into the front room, both windows on that side of the house, the far side of the house, nothing but fire and flames,” Wayne Keller told KABC-TV, standing outside of his home that took damage from the exploding house nearby; their garage door was blown inward, along with a collapsed chimney.

    “It was mayhem; you could hear the gas line just going like crazy.” He added.

    Other neighbors raised their concerns about the booming blast.

    “I thought it was an earthquake. My son said it sounded like a car hitting our house,” Mary Holley told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

    “There [were] massive embers all over the place. I got my hose out and tried to just keep my roof wet,” said Craig Erickson to KABC-TV, another neighbor who felt the shock of the explosion.

    Foul play has been ruled out by officials who are still determining the cause of the explosion.

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    (Credit: Twitter)