Friday, June 28, 2002
Posted on 06/28/2002 10:14:00 AM PDT by mhking
Friday, June 28, 2002
It was supposed to be a home renovation.
But when Transcona resident Ken Reimer ruptured a natural gas line while digging a hole for a chain-link fence yesterday, he spurred a massive explosion minutes later that levelled his house at 54 Sunway Ave.
"I'm in La-la Land right now," said next-door neighbour Jackie Sawatzky, whose home was partially damaged in the blast. "You see this on the news happening to other people, but you really don't think it's going to happen to yourself."
Reimer managed to evacuate his wife Shauna, their two children -- Carly, 3, and Andrew, 1 -- and Sawatzky's two-year-old daughter from the back yard in the nick of time.
No one was injured.
'THANKFUL'
"I'm just thankful it didn't blow right there -- I'd have no little girl," said Sawatzky, who left her daughter at the Reimers' while she went to pick up her other daughter, 6, from school.
"They're very lucky. He (Reimer) didn't have much time. It happened very fast," Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service Platoon Chief Les Wahl said, adding the house exploded just 15 minutes after the natural gas line was struck.
Reimer was digging the hole shortly before 3:45 p.m. when he realized he ruptured a natural gas line.
"As soon as he hit it, Shauna said it could have knocked her out because this big 'woof' of gas came up," Sawatzky recalled. "And Ken just said: 'Get out! Run! Go!'"
Sawatzky, returning to the Reimers' after picking up her other daughter, joined the evacuees as they made their way to a neighbour's home at 22 Sunway Ave.
After settling down the panicky children inside, the adults ventured outside to check on Reimer.
"We were on the lawn, on the sidewalk, and then all of a sudden, Kaboom! It blew," Sawatzky recalled. "I can't get the boom out of my head. Everything just went flying. I went hysterical. Shauna went hysterical because I think she thought her husband was dead."
Sawatzky then spotted Reimer in a nearby field.
"He was crouched down in a little ball and he was fine," she said. "Then I saw the flames come up."
ROCKED
The explosion rocked the normally quiet neighbourhood, sending debris into the front street and the back lane -- including a mangled swing set and the pool where the children had been playing.
Part of one wall also punched a hole into Sawatzky's home. Insulation and debris were launched on to the roofs of nearby homes.
A front-street lamp post was slightly bent by the blast.
"The gas line was spewing flames like crazy," said area resident Rod Kitchingman, 41, who was one of the first neighbours on the scene. "It sounded like a jet plane."
Relatives told The Sun the Reimers are in their 30s. Ken works as a pilot, while Shauna is a dental hygienist. They had lived in the 680 square-foot bi-level home for more than five years.
The house was built in 1989 and was assessed at $72,900.
Shauna's father was getting a haircut when he heard the news.
"I heard it was the last house on Sunway. Right away I knew which house it was," he said, adding the Reimers just had their basement done. "You thank the good Lord they've been spared."
The Reimers stayed with relatives last night.
That's encouraging...NOT!
/john
Do they get a break on their property tax this year?
Don't know how it works where you are but out here in Massatuskey, we HAVE to call 1-800-DIGSAFE before breaking ground.
It's free and it's the law. Digsafe calls all of the utilities and they scope the dig site and make sure there are no assets buried at the site.
It probably would have prevented this particular incident.
The aeronautical equivalent would be, "Lower gear before landing." Let's hope he CAN remember that one...
Damn that was some funny stuff. Billy Sol and Big Jim McBob.
I don't live in the midwest, but I think there's something called "Digger's Hotline" there that this individual should have called and did not. He even admitted the entire thing was his fault. It's an outrage, to me, that the family was able to successfully get their hands on money (other consumers will end up paying in the long run) from these companies when it was admitted negligence on the part of the homeowner that caused this tragic event.
In VA., it's called Miss Utility.
When I was in grade school, a house about 10 blocks from the school blew up due to a gas leak. We were outside for recess and were wondering what the heck happened.
This attention to detail must be what keeps Gary employed at the "Sun". Or is he paid by the word?
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