Posted on 11/11/2012 8:35:35 PM PST by JerseyanExile
Splintered beams and boards on a piece of charred earth were all that remained Sunday where at least two Indianapolis homes were leveled in a blast that killed two people and rendered homes for blocks uninhabitable. A backhoe raked through the rubble in the middle-class subdivision as clusters of firefighters and rescue workers weary from a long, chaotic day that began late the night before waited for their next assignment.
The two-story, brick-faced homes on either side of those demolished by the blast were ruins. One home's roof was gone, a blackened husk left behind. On the other side of the gap, the side of a home was sheared off. Across the street, garage doors had buckled from the heat.
It wasn't yet clear what caused the blast that shook the neighborhood at 11 p.m. Saturday. Residents described hearing a loud boom that blew out windows and collapsed ceilings. Some thought a plane had crashed or that it was an earthquake.
Alex Pflanzer, who was asleep when the nearby homes were leveled, said he heard his wife screaming and thought someone was breaking in his house. Grabbing his gun, he checked the house and saw the front door was standing open.
"I walked outside and all the houses were on fire," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Too many people live in a world where their reality is based on what they see in movies and on TV.
They probably didn’t know there would be any collateral damage, they thought it was going to be like they see on TV.
Another reason I choose I live where I do.
There are no neighbors close enough to me to blow me up with their stupidity.
So still a stalemate. Might have been the furnace, but maybe not. Whoever “fixed” it is going to get some scrutiny. Still no definite cause at the scene.
“But Shirley also said when he asked if the furnace had been fixed, his daughter said yes, and he wasn’t aware of any additional problems until he heard from his daughter again Sunday morning.”
“Investigators said they have not determined a cause for the Saturday night blast that sparked a massive fire, blew out windows, collapsed ceilings and shook homes up to three miles away. Public Safety Director Troy Riggs said the search for answers could take some time.
Utility workers have been inspecting gas mains in the neighborhood but so far have detected no leaks, a spokesman said.”
http://news.yahoo.com/owner-furnace-may-behind-deadly-indiana-blast-170347412.html
I suspect with the level of damage, that is going to take quite a while, weeks probably.
Looks like gas to me
Well, if they found that timer fragment... :-)
Thanks for posting that report. I was too tired last night to dig it out.
That may be more likely found by the International Space Station crew than the local investigators...
I thought DOT was for common carrier lines, not local distribution for a single company.
I meant to type “that Pan Am 103 timer fragment”...
Thanks!
Wondering if it wasn’t an attempted insurance fraud. Ok the furnace could have a problem. The size of the problem would be a huge one, easily detected and gas cut off and locked.The leak wouldn’t (shouldn’t) occur in a gas furnace with a proper functioning thermocouple. If the thermocouple wasn’t functioning properly, gas flow should stop. If gas flow continued unchecked, pilot (electric) wouldn’t activate because of the thermocouple. It doesn’t add up. Luckily, the resident was away from home a few days. Why leave the unit on if you’re away?
Just a guess, but sounds like the owner couldn’t sell the house so wanted to collect insurance.
Turned the gas on thinking it would only destroy the one house.
Owner was gone for a few days and figured it would just be a fire. The leak would need to be before the furnace and the furnace shut down (to prevent the electric pilot from igniting the gas). The gas built up until it ignited from another source on a higher floor. Just speculation, but I agree with the insurance angle
It also doesn't rule out a leak in the customer's equipment or piping. The gas company only owns, at best, up to the gas meter, and more likely, to the "tee" connection where the branch line goes to the house.
How long were these people out of town?
Don’t know for sure but sounded like it was a jaunt to a nearby casino so maybe a couple nights.
Mine does, and I know this from experience (shameless lawn tractor/gas meter interaction). But, remember that the gas inside the home is regulated down to a very low pressure at the gas meter, so a leak on the home side has less of a chance of causing a sufficient pressure drop to trigger the shutoff device. Essentially, an open pipe on the house side of the meter will flow gas, while the street side of the meter still sees pressure due to the regulator.
Now, if the leak was smaller - loose connection or crack in a flexible gas line, then it would be way too small to detect unless someone was in the home and smelled the gas.
As I commented before, more than likely they got their entire view of reality based on what they have seen in the movies and on TV.
No concept of what really happens, just the movie version.
No problem. That happened less than a mile from where I live. I'm sure when the couple who lived there were buying the house, the seller was forced to replace the old Terra Cotta sewer line. He hired a registered plumber to do the job, and some guy with a back hoe hit the pipe that was 40+ feet from the house and decided not to say anything. And then, 5 years later....
It is amazing that the little girl survived, thank God.
Natural gas is nothing to mess with and then you see the guys on this thread thinking because the don't have pilot lights, they are ok.
What can I say?
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