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Subscribe to RSSIndiana investigators look for cause of an explosion that killed two, injured seven people. WTHR's Jennie Runevitch reports.
Updated at 9:16 p.m. ET: Officials have called in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate a thunderous explosion that killed two and left 27 homes uninhabitable in a south Indianapolis neighborhood late Saturday night, NBC affiliate WTHR reported.
The blast was reported shortly after 11 p.m. near South Sherman Drive and Stop 11 Road on the south side of Indianapolis, WTHR said.
"Multiple houses engulfed in flames. Even the police officers that got to the scene before I did were not sure what happened. Kind of a surreal scene, even for police officers," Marion County Sheriff John Layton told the station.
Emergency crews rescued Glenn and Gloria Olvey from their home, the Indianapolis Star reported, and were reportedly “battered, bruised and sore.”
Matt Kryger / The Indianapolis Star
Two houses were leveled by an explosion that sparked a fire and killed two people early Sunday morning. The powerful nighttime blast shattered windows, crumpled walls and could be felt at least three miles away.
The cause of the explosion and fires wasn't immediately clear, but Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard dismissed reports of a possible plane crash as he arrived at the scene. Fire officials said separately that investigators would be checking whether natural gas was possibly involved but they had no further details on what was behind the blast that sent tall flames skyward.
Ballard said at least two homes had been destroyed by the powerful blast and that the damage went on "for blocks on end."
Read more from NBC affiliate WTHR
Television video showed tall flames shooting overhead and spreading to numerous homes shortly after the blast reported around 11 p.m. Saturday. Hours after the flames pierced the skyline, firefighters had begun containing the flames and thick clouds of gray smoke billowed overhead.
Matt Kryger / AP
Authorities say a loud explosion has leveled a home in Indianapolis and set four others ablaze in a neighborhood, causing several injuries.
"It was so strong that it clearly had an effect for blocks," Ballard said from the area. Beyond the burning homes there was wider damage in the neighborhood: windows shattered in nearby homes, walls caved in and garage doors were knocked off their hinges.
Residents were told to evacuate to a nearby elementary school and people could be seen shivering in white blankets handed out to them as they moved off.
IFD works to control the fires from the the multiple home explosions on the southside of Indy. @indystar twitter.com/MattKryger/sta…
— Matt Kryger (@MattKryger) November 11, 2012
Ballard said investigators will have to see what they find in coming days.
"We're going to need some comforting in the next few days," he said.
Earlier, Capt. Rita Burris with the Indianapolis Fire Department told The Associated Press that the scene looked like something out of a war zone. "It's really messy," she said soon after it began.
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Leave a Comment:
It was probably caused by..........natural gas...........no, wait..........meth lab.........no, wait.............terrorism........no, wait...........hold on....................bad luck! Yeah, that's the ticket, bad luck! Everything else is sheer speculation, but the bad luck is undeniable. Same thing sunk the Titanic, blew up the Hindenburg, and caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster - bad luck! Bad luck is always lurking around the corner. Be on the watch for bad luck. Bad luck kills. We need to make laws against bad luck. Oh, wait, the people in the state and federal governments are a huge pile of bad luck all by themselves. We're doomed!
No, YOU'RE doomed. Bad luck for you!
Wow, how awful. Condolences to the families of the victims. It will be interesting to hear what the cause is, these days you can never be sure.
Gas Explosion? Thats the standerd story or S.O.P. for a "Domestic Drone Strike" Wake Up America.
*sigh*
"Aging Infrastructure" is not a factor. According to local news, this occured in a relatively new subdivision, maybe 10-15 years old, hardly aging. See: and look up Fieldfare Way, Indianapolis, IN on google earth. The bomb experts will find a cause. Politics is not a factor. The forensic people have their work cut out for them
Natural gas can do this.
Pray for those killed, hurt or affected
As a twenty year volunteer firefighter I can tell you that natural gas can and probably did do this. Being that it is a relatively new sub-division makes natural gas an even bigger suspect. This same thing happened in a couple of newer nieghborhoods in the Twin Cities area several years ago and the State made the gas companies dig up and replace several hundred (I believe) suspected pipe fittings.
Natural gas, as it's being delivered to the homes, has an odorizer in it so that if there is a leak it can easily be detected. But if the leak is far enough under ground the surrounding dirt can "scrub" the odorizer out of the gas rendering it odorless and undetectable. And natural gas always seeks the lowest level so the gas will build up in the basements of the houses and wait until it's at the proper air-to-gas ratio and then wait for a furnace or waterheater pilot light to kick in and BOOM! you have a toothpick nieghborhood.
Natural gas is lighter than air, wouldn't think it would collect in low places.
I think its likely gas aswell.
Homes are poorly constructed...burning, roofs and walls blowing off or caving in, doors knocked off, etc. for blocks around tells me we need newer and stronger construction methods and materials.
It´s all bull @!$%# or lies... I think it was a military drone... with weapons on board that went heywire... go ahead and vote for the black Osama or Obama or whatever his name.. he´s behind all this spying on the people of America he´s a Natzi and a Communist
juan , you cannot possibly be this stupid. "Oh ya, Obama targeted the neighborhood because they didn't vote for him." LOL..Get real man because you are really out there.
It´s all bull @!$%# or lies... I think it was a military drone... with weapons on board that went heywire... go ahead and vote for the black Osama or Obama or whatever his name.. he´s behind all this spying on the people of America he´s a Natzi and a Communist
Wow....Drone....Nazi....Communist....black....miltary....voting....did you miss anything?
My speculation is this. A home that was empty yet filled with gas then boom. If not this then a gas line. If it was a gas line it was most likely faulty materials because the neighborhood is not that old.
Doesn't have to be faulty materials... could have been sloppy work in putting in the pipe fittings, as the poster above stated.
I agree.
Indy = meth labs
Seems like an awfully upscale neighborhood to be harboring a meth lab.
Isn't it sad that with all the bailout money that Obama wasted with banks, insurance companies (AIG), etc., we could have basically rebuilt our entire infrastructure from scratch? The bailout was over $3 trillion total and that is the estimated amount to rebuild America. Imagine how many jobs THAT would have generated compared to those rich bank CEO's just getting fatter bonuses and stock options?
It wasn't 3 trillion. TARP started with Bush and finished with Obama. The Recovery Act was Obama's baby and it did what it was suppose to do. Stop the bleeding. Most reliable economist admit the stimulus was not big enough but don't forget Obama couldn't get a bigger deal because of our debt problems and those in Congress, some Dems, who would not allow a bigger package.
Where is your outrage over the wasted monies spent on the Iraq war and the rebuilding of that country? The CBO has estimated the long term cost to be 2.4 trillion. Why is it not okay to help our country but okay to help another? The Iraq war was wrong and the Bush tax cuts was wrong. Both have taken our budget surplus and created a huge budget deficit that has accelerated our national debt. Also, it cost republicans politically. If they would have stayed on the path that Clinton was on we would have weathered the economic downturn better and we could have afford to rebuild our infrastructure better.
This is really off topic given this neighborhood was a newer subdivision. But please keep blaming Obama for everything that is wrong in this world if it makes you feel better...
And as proof of that sum I offer as facts produced by the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/04/business/20090205-bailout-totals-graphic.html
While you're using this tragedy to finger point, why not post what the last 5 presidents have done to fix the infrastructure. People like you blame any and everything on those you hate without hesittion and without reason. The POTUS(regardless of who it is ) doesnot control spending Congress does.
This was a very big and hidden Meth-lab explosion. This isn't no natural gas fault here. I guarantee it.
And for those who died in that house well they deserved to because technically they were drug dealers and they were supplying the drugs that would killed even more innocent people. I'm sorry but it's the truth and sometimes truth hurts... Trust me~
This would be far short of Indiana's worst natural gas explosion. That record probably goes to Richmond in 1968, when 41 people were killed and 150+ injured. The gas company tried hard to say that explosion was really caused by gunpowder in a sporting goods store, and the 2 factors probably did combine with the downtown location to make it a bad as it was.
Since ATF and Homeland Security is involved too, the media should divulge the whole truth.
Strange, if this article was written after the firefighters put out the blaze, they would have known if it was caused by a gas leak because they would have the pipe shooting flames out and would have had to call to get the gas shut off...either inferior reporting or they are hiding something. MHO
Citizens Energy was on the scene very quickly and shut off the natural gas to about 26 homes in the affected area.
I live on the west side of Indy, and this has been all over the local news since it happened. The gas company and fire department are still investigating, and I give them credit for resisting the urge to jump to conclusions about what caused this tragedy.
I wonder if a big propane tank or a large container-tank of gasoline could have caused this. Maybe somebody had fuel stored up to run their generator.
This was clearly an "Act of God" put in place by Obama. We just don't know how he's responsible yet!
I think these were some of the people who said that if he was re-elected that they would leave the country and had not started to do so!
I just find it odd that they do not know what caused it - If it was a plane crash - one would be able to find something. I think this is some kind of cover up and the authorities are working on getting their story straight.
Whatever did happen, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people who were killed or injured. No one is safe from all harm regardless where we live and if this was caused by greed or wrong doings - Damn you.
Just to say..Romney won Indiana..they went from a blue state to a real RED state.
mike277 - Indiana has never in modern times, and I mean never, been considered a blue state.
Ok, Mitt was behind it because he found out that block all voted for Obama!
shocking . I go with the natural gas explosion.
my condolences and best wishes. hope the investigation of this is done with up most expediency. my fatherinlaw was the victim of a NGE , 4or5 houses in that one too
Well, it's a Glick complex, and southside...if it's the one I'm thinking of it was probably a meth lab. Can't be sure though, all those Glick complexes look the same.
I will NEVER have a GAS stove in my home. I heat my home with a Wood Burning Stove. Sorry to hear of loss of lives. Just before the holidays it must be tough for those in the fray.
Another good reason to live in the country without close neighbors!!! No gas lines to worry about out here either!
I hope it wasn't some idiot with a meth lab.
Nobody has mentioned "meth lab"? Hello????
Hello??? It has been mentioned many times in the comments.
Schooled.