Probe into horrific home explosion in Indy could be lengthy (Homeland Security involved)

wbst.com ^ | 11/11 | wbst.com

[RummyChick]

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The investigation into an explosion on the south side of Indianapolis could take weeks, an official with Citizens Energy said on Sunday.

Two people were killed, and more than a dozen homes were damaged or destroyed after a large explosion rocked a south side neighborhood late Saturday night.

The Indianapolis Fire Department says the explosion happened in the 8400 block of Fieldfare Way, which is in a subdivision just off of Sherman Avenue south of Stop 11 Road.

Citizens Energy shut off gas to all the homes in the subdivision and investigated potential gas issues in the neighborhood. An official said the company had received no reports of an odor of gas in the area, and no gas leaks had been discovered as of early Sunday morning.

Indianapolis Fire Department planned to continue investigating S

[Paladin2]

"There are 31 homes labeled with major damages."

A brief re-review of the posted pic does reveal the near neighbors have some REAL problems.

[Kakaze]

Did they live in the home that exploded?

I don't know, i caught the report as part of the half time of the Dallas, Philly game.

It will probably take a bit to sort it out.

[RummyChick]

just from the force of the blast

[Kakaze]

Prayers up for the family. Didn't realize there were fatalities.

Yeah two people passed, looks as if the neighbors were very lucky that is all that happened. On a saturday night it could have been a lot worse.

[piasa]

There was a doozy like this in St Louis a few years ago that made the national news.

Just wait 'til thanksgiving and the usual redneck turkey cooking accidents start occurring- late night radio tinfoilers will be claiming drone strikes every time some moron drops a dripping wet turkey into a turkey fryer.

[Cvengr]

Looks like FAE, with very little initiation.

[Sawdring]

My brother’s next door neighbor’s house blew up and killed the owner. He sent his wife and newborn to a hotel for the night because of the smell and the gas repairman was supposed to come over and investigate it first thing in the morning.

[RummyChick]

here is an aerial view via helicopter
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/video/video-chopper-8-flies-over-explosion-aftermath

[JRandomFreeper]

Wow... couple of pounds of overpressure.

Baby nuke kind of thing. Bending a door like that, and blowing it however far away...

What a mess. Prayers up for all involved.

/johnny

[RummyChick]

What I can’t figure out is how this was felt more than 20 miles away in Hancock county. I did a map search to see the distance. That is a long way to feel that explosion.

A guy from the gas company said they found no leaking gas in the ground in the neighborhood.

Saw one rumor that the family had been having work done on the house. If so, that company is about to go bankrupt.

[Morris70]

My first guess was meth lab.
Pretty sure DHS is pro meth so probably something else.

[Cboldt]

There are gas leaks, and there are gas leaks. In one case, the gas leaks out of the distribution network. That gas has the ethyl mercaptan (skunk) smell added, so leaks can be detected by human smell. But the earth sometimes leaks gas on it's own volition, and that stuff is odorless. I don't know if there is any natural gas in that part of Indiana.

Maybe a fire caused a pressurized tank (no leak) to explode.

[RummyChick]

[RedMDer]

[JRandomFreeper]

Depends on conditions. The airstation is a couple of air miles away. This time of year, I make sure I'm outside at 8:00am and put up the flag while the National Anthem plays. Yes, I face the music, and render a salute.

I hear the warm fuzzy noise of their exersizes (small arms and explosion simulators) really well this time of year.

I'm not very surpised that it was felt 20 miles away.

/johnny

[muawiyah]

The low frequency sound was conducted through the underlying limestone. The soils in Indiana North of the limits of the great glaciers are exceedingly fertile and well suited to agriculture ~ but they are actually quite thin and unless you live in an area also underlain by a large pothole full of gravel, you learn all about drought every few years.

This is physiologically pretty much the same subsurface condition you find in East and South Texas.

[RummyChick]

So seeing people linking to claims that Monserrate Roman Shirley was an owner of one of the houses. Anyone else hear that? There is a NASA employee payload specialist with the same name.

[elkfersupper]

I seem to recall the police bombing their own employers in Philadelphia, PA some 25 years ago with similar results and more fatalities.

Not insinuating anything, just a reminder.

And yes, a natural gas leak is very capable of producing a kaboom of this magnitude.

[circlecity]

I live about 3 miles from the explosion and it certainly woke me up at 11:13 last night. I thought someone had ran a car into the front of our home because the house shook. My son is a nurse and one of his nurse collegues owned the house that exploded. She had been having trouble with her gas heat all week and Citizens gas had been out working on her gas lines just three or four days before the explosion. She was gone from home since Thursday night and not home when the explosion occured. Thus, it certainly appears to be a gas explosion. She did, however, get a call from police asking if she had any enemies or anyone who might want to do something like this to her but I think they are just covering all the bases for the inevitable lawsuits which will be forthcoming.

[muawiyah]

I know the locations of several stripper wells within 40 miles of that site. However, the whole area was drilled and tapped for easy to get natural gas over a century ago. They've been drilling into the same formations to go deeper to do a bit of fraking to get natural gas.

The Cincinatti Arch underlies this region, and there's an ancient over thrust belt downthere as well, so you can get natural gas coming up through holes you didn't know where there. Many homeowners in Indiana get free gas through old wells.

If this wasn't a bomb of some kind it may be nothing but an old gas well overlooked when the developer built these homes in the recent past.