US Mall explosion caused by abandoned munitions dump accident?

Last night a parking lot at the 'Ford City' mall on Chicago's southwest side exploded. No one was killed, but the explosion was poweful enough to blast a gash several stories deep into the parking lot (and destroy a variety of automobiles):

www.nbc5.com...

This explosion has been decreed the work of a gas main accident...
...but there's something more to the story that the press isn't covering.

You see, 'Ford City' was once a manufacturing plant used by both Ford and Tucker motors. During WW2 the plant was converted over to the production of military equipment (I believe B-24s and half tracks were produced there). Several tunnels were constructed beneath the facility, as the allies, at that point, feared a german strike on the most important US production facilities. The tunnels were large enough to house entire assembly lines.

Now, here's where the conspiracy starts... a very old urban legend on the SW side of Chicago (where I'm from) holds that one of the deepest tunnels was turned into a munitions storage site that -- as it contained both conventional and chemical explosives -- was eventually sealed-off by the government. Right now the local rumor is that one of these old bombs went off... and that the 'gas main' eruption was really one that almost set off old canisters of mustard gas.

So, what do you guys think?

Probably an underground munitions factory maybe?

I dont know but we would no doubt be producing alot of explosives, armor, and bombs, missiles etc. to supply the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least I hope they had the decency enough to put it deep anough that it wouldnt blow up the mall above it in a worse case scenario.

But it could of just been a gasline explosion like they said.

Who knows, go there and start digging at night when noone's looking with a bulldozer and see if you can find Atlantis.

I'd rate that theory as about as likely as finding treasure in "Al Capone's Vault."

Where is Geraldo when you ned him?



[edit on 13-1-2005 by HowardRoark]

Well,
Here is an update on the story. The authorities in Chicago are now backing away from the official line that it was a gas main eruption. The talk on tv, radio, and on the street is that it was 'probably' a gas main rupture but that it's too early to conclude for sure that it was.

Though this article leans towards a gas main rupture (due to the supposed video footage), it also points out that the ATF has been called in. Have you ever heard of the ATF investigating a gas main explosion?
www.msnbc.msn.com...

"More than two dozen cars were destroyed in the explosion -- some cars were swallowed up by the crater, which Vatis said measured about 25 feet deep and about 100 feet wide.
"Officials from just about every agency in the city are getting involved in the investigation, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and bomb and arson investigators.
"There were many people in the mall at the time of the explosion, Vatis reported, and the survivors are just beginning to tell their stories.
'"It sounded like a bomb had dropped," said Omwah Sneed, whose car was destroyed by pieces of the pavement raining down on his car after the explosion. "The ground shook and everything. The next thing you know, everybody started running. When I came out, it looked like Ground Zero outside -- cars were flipped over." '