So, when you hear about the explosion in Middleton...

[debgeisler]

...no worries. The Bostik plant is about .4 of a mile from here. The whole house shook, though.

And it was loud.

And our dinner guest got more than she bargained for. *snicker*

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Good to know you're OK.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, yes. The initial shock after the *BOOM* was pretty bracing...then we spent the next 25 minutes trying to find out what the hell had happened!

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Found it amusing that sitting in Melbourne, I was the first one to be able to tell you the likely cause :->

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

By the time I got back to Facebook, we knew...but I was snickering that yours was the first response. And an Aussie news site has the story before New England Cable News said a word about it!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Eep.

Four-tenths of a mile may be far enough away for horseshoes and hand grenades, but it's not nearly far enough when it's an explosion at a chemical plant.

I admit that I'm amused by the WHDH report that they've "received several calls from people as far away as Peabody that they felt the blast." The Peabody town line is all of how many hundred yards away from the Bostik Plant?

I trust the road will be open again by the time I'm heading your way three days from now.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

As I noted on Facebook when we heard that report: "Dear WHDH: do you know how dorky you sound saying, with awe, that people as far away as Peabody felt the Middleton blast? That would be roughly 500 *FEET*, given where the plant is. (Signed) Disgusted."

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Grin. Exactly.

[madfilkentist]

Just be glad CNN isn't covering it. They keep referring to the gas explosions at Fukushima as "nuclear blasts."

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Good lord, we live in the future. I'm watching the live stream now.

As you doubt already know, reports are that a small fire was contained and a large amount of steam can be seen coming from the building, but that the state police haven't ordered any evacuation in the area.

While there's no reason to expect they will, please know that guest beds are available here at Toad Woods for you, benveniste, and your dinner guest, too. There is a small dog currently in residence, and more snow than you're likely to see anywhere between there and here.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Yep, we're watching the stream, too. And hearing the chopper outside, of course. *snort*

Thank you for the offer, but right now, no worries. The State Police are urging people to stay in their homes, and that's what we're doing (except for forays to the back deck for a smoke). Sheila left a few minutes ago...she's taking an alternate way home, since she can't get to 128 easily...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

That's quite some wall that blew off. While I've only driven by the plant, I'm quite certain the original architecture wasn't set up in dollhouse fashion where you can reach directly into all the rooms on several floors.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

It will be amazing to see it in the daylight. Right now, it is surreal to watch it and hear it. And no, I don't think that building was originally engineered that way...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

The best quote I've seen so far on the surreal front is from The Salem News:

"Anastas Varinos said he was a half-mile away at his home on Old Haswell Park Road, reading his environmental science book about, of all things, nuclear explosions.

“That’s when “I felt the boom,” he said. “All the doors shook.”

That had to have been a Twilight Zone moment.

(Repeated words typo in article corrected.)

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

The woman quoted in the Boston Globe story (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/report_fire_in.html?rss_id=Top+Stories) (at boston.com) is, of course, someone we know. I'm praying her son-in-law was not injured (or that he is not badly injured).

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yes, prayers shared, aimed in the same direction. And for all in harm's way there.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I made it home safely. Thanks. :)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Excellent. No additional explosions en route, I trust.

Once upon a time

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

When we were still living in the Prairie Village, KS house, there was a gigantic explosion at what is basically the bottom of the valley that we were halfway up the slope from. I remember waking up and going 'what was that?"

Six Kansas City, MO fire department personnel walked into their death in what may have been a deliberately set trap at a construction site. What blew up was a trailer full of construction explosives. Some less-well built houses, even in our neighborhood (about four miles away) took shock damage.

I'm glad you are all okay and safe.

Re: Once upon a time

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

This explosion was not nearly as bad as the one you experienced. The damage, aside from a couple of houses where people said things fell off of the walls, was mainly to the plant. And that's a darned shame, because Bostik has been a good company to have here in town. I hope they recover from the damage.

[maurinestarkey.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was lucky all the way round. I was in Las Vegas on Sunrise (road) when the Stouffer chemical plant blew up in the mid 80s. There was a ringing in my ears, I thought would never go away, a plume of smoke and fire that could be seen across the valley, broken windows all along the thoroughfare and a stink that made you want to wretch. There was loss of life with that one.

Today there are housing tracks built too close to those plants. Henderson stopped being a bedroom community for Las Vegas and had to expand.