Deadly blast devastates Indianapolis neighborhood

Yahoo News ^ | November 11, 2012 | Charles Wilson

[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.

[petitfour]

Maybe somebody was making perfume.

How horrifying! I saw this story and had to look up where this occurred and then look up the addresses of all my relatives in the area. Thankfully, they are not close.

[cricket]

There was a very odd "smell" thoughout the southside after the explosion and it was still lingering in the wind at 2:00AM. It was NOT the smell of natural gas and it did not have the typical "house fire" smell. It smell almost sweet, floral, but musky. (That's the best I can describe it.)

Oh, missed this.. .well, that leaves out 'gas' again; (maybe?) and sweet/musky does not sound like 'fertilizer' (unless at high temps?); but 'who and whatever'? Just no connections; 'please' with Benghazi. . .

[Terry Mross]

Was there one explosion from one house that leveled two houses?

[chuckles]

The neighbor said Mohamed was a very quiet guy. He was said to be meeting with his Imam over a cartoon drawn on the sidewalk when a package arrived.

[Myrddin]

The gas company may not have a leak, but that doesn’t rule out methane coming up out of the ground from a “natural” source. There is plenty of that going on around Bayou Corne, LA. The meth lab angle is possible too. BATFE should have a look at the site.

[Jack Hydrazine]

If it was Palie jihadis it could have been TATP.

[_Jim]

Natural gas explosion at a strip mall - surprised no one has done any research of these ‘things’ being caught on tape as htey happen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldNRcuIT0J0

[mfccinsd]

Some of the earliest reports from scanners in the area - who were listening because of a missing elderly man who is diabetic and without his meds - included mention of metal falling from the sky. Some even were saying that before the explosion....though that could be based on the awareness of when people felt/heard/saw some degree of explosion vs. saw debris.

[ltc8k6]

There’d really be no way to hide a big gas leak, though. The fire department’s sniffers would be going off, and everyone would smell it, too.

Of course this doesn’t mean they won’t announce tomorrow that it was a gas leak that they mysteriously couldn’t find for a few days...

[_Jim]

Posted for those unable to find the reference I made earlier to this post by 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.

39 posted on Sun Nov 11 2012 17:36:20 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) by circlecity

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2958364/posts?q=1&;page=1

[_Jim]

“There’d really be no way to hide a big gas leak, though.”

- - - - - -

Right,

See the post just above.

(What if it IS as circlecity says, and the gas leak was SOLELY inside the house? ... BOOM!)

OH YEAH .. another good -gas blast- caught on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV4OZqSdP1U

Nah ... these things NEVER happen ... never.

[Moonman62]

This seems to be more powerful than a typical gas leak explosion. The only similar explosion I can remember was when there was a gas leak that ignited at a muffler shop many years ago. That was probably acetylene.

[PA Engineer]

There’d really be no way to hide a big gas leak, though. The fire department’s sniffers would be going off, and everyone would smell it, too.

There was gas. There was nothing holding it back after the risers were sheared in the three houses. YMHO. From many years working in failures including pipelines.

[ltc8k6]

They happen all the time, as everyone knows.
It’s just not normally a mystery for very long.

I had an overhead gas heater develop a small manifold leak. The smell was obvious, and the gas co sniffer tracked it right down.

[_Jim]

Don’t try this at home - or on the streets in China:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RJCAh7jMFQ

[PA Engineer]

This seems to be more powerful than a typical gas leak explosion.

The housing construction here was very flimsy and compact. I am not surprised. There was a picture on another thread that showed a brick home nearby. The windows and garage door were damaged. There was no structural damage. The remainder of the homes had insulation sheathing with vinyl siding.

[_Jim]

This seems to be more powerful than a typical gas leak explosion.

- - - - - - - - -

‘splain yourself.

The houses across the street were not flattened, but the WOOD STICK STRUCTURES adjacent were ... (did you WATCH or view any of the vids posted above even?)

Facts, man. Give me facts, not conjecture. I can get that anywhere ...

[Squawk 8888]

There was a similar explosion around here about 15 years ago that was caused by gas, the house that blew up pretty much disintegrated and some neighbouring homes were destroyed. All of the gas was inside the house so none of the neighbours smelled anything.

[_Jim]

Physics problem: work out for me, if you will, the amount of energy available for this ‘reaction’ assuming the Methane was within the Flammability limits as posted earlier and the hole is say 15’ deep by 3’ diameter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MtCg-8v9W

We will use your answer and extrapolate that to a house filled with the same Methane gas mixture ...

[ltc8k6]

I meant hiding it in terms of a conspiracy to conceal the cause of the explosion to avoid liability, as was suggested.