Posted on 02/21/2003 7:20:52 AM PST by LonePalm
I just turned and looked out my office window and saw a column of black smoke rising towards Union Beach/Perth Amboy NJ.
I then felt the force of an explosion rattle my window.
Thanks for proving my point about people not seeing the actual facts of a scare incident when they come out.
It turned out two be two East INDIAN guys(not Arabs) shaving their FACES in a bathroom on their way to some sort of convention in Las Vegas. Every single initially reported fact of the story turned out to be completely and utterly wrong.
Very true.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A fuel barge caught fire near an oil storage terminal off New York's Staten Island on Friday, but the immediate cause of the blaze was not known, fire officials said.
Law enforcement officials said there were no initial indications that it was anything other than an accident.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said the facility was owned by Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company.
Initial reports from fire officials described the barge as carrying propane.
Residents of the New York borough and nearby towns in New Jersey said they heard an explosion and felt the ground and houses shake.
"A barge was being refueled and it somehow caught fire," Fire Chief William Van Ward of the New York Fire Department said on local WNBC-TV.
The explosion and fire, in the waterway known as Arthur Kill between Staten Island and New Jersey, sent huge clouds of black smoke and flames into the sky that could be seen from Manhattan.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or on the extent of the damage, officials said.
"There was a loud explosion like something fell on our house," Reuters reporter Rene Pastor said from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. "We rushed out and saw thick black smoke in the air, with flames shooting up into the sky."
Here's a few more....
- captain of the barge was down below sleeping it off (ala the Valdez)
- man at the controls had been smoking pot earlier (ala the train accident about 15 years ago).
There's been plenty of bonehead things done in the past... wouldn't surprise me if it happened again (especially with those preventable tragedies at the clubs the past couple of nights).
Our stupidity/irresponsibility is sometimes our own worst enemy!
I think you are absolutely right about that.
Yes ... just like the crash of flight 587 on 11.12.01 was declared an accident before the flames were out ... blame was then placed on birds, wind, loose bolts, bad French plastic, pilot error, etc, etc, etc. I wonder whatever happened with the charred pages of the Koran found in the rubble???
My sister lives nearby. Just off Richmond Rd/Richmond Ave. A couple of minutes from Hylan Blvd.
Hope everybody is OK.
That was no casual slip of the fingers. You flat out crashed and burned on that one. ;-)
I would agree with you on the club fires, terrible tragedies but both born of stupidity and panci.
However, I wouldn't be putting terrorism too low on you list for the following reasons with the barge explosion:
1. The petroleum farm is a natural target and setting blowing up the barge would in the minds of bad guys result in secondary explosions crippling the US economy once again.
2. MO for terrorists is to blow up ships and tankers in port with suicide whack jobs. I'll be waiting for reports of who was on board that barge and were there any smaller vessels seen approaching it prior to explosion.
3. bin Laden's recent call for whackjobs to kill the infidel may have had more meaning than we thought.
4. It's a perfect target, maximum visibility, OIL, crippling to the US econonmy and panic in Central Park.
It may be an accident but terrorism would be high on my list.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
"Terrorism is designed to *not* look like an industrial accident."
I agree with that, too. But my meaning is a little different, are all of these news items happening with more frequency? Or do we just pay more attention to the news now? Still, all of the deaths and injuries from the these stories, regardless who is at fault, is a little unsettling.
It's human nature, especially since we've been told to expect more (terrorist acts)....letting off nervous tension....IF something happens soon, then maybe it'll ALL BE OVER SOON, as we all wish.....
It's that .1% that gets you killed everytime.History should have taught you that.
"Unless one believes Iraqi Intelligence has infiltrated the ranks of stage techs for mediocre 80s hair-metal bands, or Al Quaeda has specially-placed security guards who cleverly start stampedes with pepper spray, both of these club incidents are clearly not terrorism.
LOL, who pray tell, would ever assume either one of those incidents could be connected to terrorists.However Explosions, Plane crashes and train accidents could be. Unless of course the "Ostrich syndrome" has taken hold of you, I seem to recall quite a few warnings by the Feds and others that these types of Incidents were among the things they learned terrorists had planned. So are you saying that we should just pass off all Incidents of these types as accidents? Remember that .1 %?
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