Firefighters Responding To Blast, Blaze In Allentown, Pa.; Residents Evacuated

Is it me, or does it seem at all to you like they're being evasive in what they talk about, like, they don't want to say some things?
I realllly don't listen to police scanners regularly, so this might be typical.. lol But when they sound extra serious, they 'switch to 2'.....??

reply to post by SkipperJohn


Thank you Skipper, nice to see you here at ATS.


reply to post by JacKatMtn


Adding a new 16 inch gas main in the area, I would get out if I lived there.
That is unreal...
www.pressconnects.com...

One man who lived across the street from the house that burst into splinters said the house

was blown to splinters first....

then caught on fire....

How is that possible???

Here is an aerial video...not sure if it has already been posted or not.

www.wfmz.com...

reply to post by Weeeden


That's pretty typical... the scanner that you are hearing is open... most fire/ems/police have encrypted capabilities that they use for those discussions.. For my area, it's pretty much bland besides hearing the initial alarm calls, then once they get to the scene alot of the more sensitive stuff goes encrypted.. at least from my neck of the woods..

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Ohh Ok!! Thanks for the information.. I could see myself using up tooo much time doing this. lol

reply to post by burntheships


the explosion probably happened so quickly and most likely startled the witness ( I know it would me), that his account may be skewed? I would think that it would have been in the blink of an eye type deal once it got started..

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Yes, I agree..in a situation like that 1 second can seem like forever.

How fortelling is this? I found this article also just from today....

Is PA Safe From Natural Gas Disaster?
February 9th, 2011

For the state of Pennsylvania, the year of 2011 might well be the “year of natural gas”.

With the discovery of the giant gas reserves of the Marcellus Shale located directly under many sections of the mid-state and the release of the Josh Fox documentary Gasland (which is now up for an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards for Best Documentary), the debate has raged over how this new industry will shape or be shaped by the Commonwealth and its leaders, particularly our new governor, Tom Corbett.

www.examiner.com...

This looks to be a defining issue in the area, no doubt.

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by solarstorm
Prolly a staged event from Janet Napolitano to solidify the case of "home grown" terrorists.

OK I usually agree with you on many topics but people are injured and hopefully no fatalities and you're making political jabs?

Bad form my man, Bad form...

If it was some sort of "terrorist" act, it's not bad form, it's a fair statement.

Just because people were injured and killed during 9/11 doesn't mean it's "bad form" to believe the government was involved...

UPDATE:

EXPLOSION ON BLOCK, 4 HOUSES WELL INVOLVED, MASS CASUALTY INCIDENT LEVEL 3 DECLARED. EVACUATION OF 2 CITY BLOCKS. [WSC037]

www.radioreference.com...

Raw Video Firefighter Chopper
statter911.com...

Hopefully they are not the Decepticons.

Wow I live only 20 min away from Allentown, and I didn't hear a thing about this... interesting..

reply to post by fr1ar


Hi, and welcome to ATS.

Sorry to be under these circumstances, however hopefully you can be made
aware of the issues in your vicinity.

Were you aware that there is serious construction going on with a new 16 inch gas pipeline
in the area?

just saw that 1 dead 1 in surgery 5 missing 750 evacuated and 8 houses leveled

OKAY, I'm from Allentown, I've lived in Center City, East Side, West Side (not in the rich white majority areas but the on Reading Rd. by the Yocco's and Cedar Beach), and hail from the South Side, (though I'm in South Korea right now due to the military), I can tell you natural gas lines are basically used for heat and for ovens and stoves that are in most homes in the Northeast United States. The Gross Towers Complex are two tall towers near the border of the West Side and Center City and by a CVS my mother and I used to go to when I was younger. These explosions are rare but do happen, there was an explosion in the mid-2000s with the exact same cause in the South Side of the city. My friends had no power and my mother's house shook violently luckily everyone survived, it does happen. It's not terrorism, and not a meteor most likely. This has happened before and most likely will happen again. That area of the city also has older homes built in the early 20th Century and most of the residents of that section are at the poverty or below poverty line. The homes are also mostly rowhomes which is prominent in the city due to the high population density of Allentown and most Northeastern cities. (20,000+ in a sq. mi. in Center City!) It's very possible that they let the maintenance go unnoticed or didn't notice at all. It's very speculative. I'm just trying to provide a little background into the area and what's in those homes.

SN: I miss Allentown very much, and cannot wait to go back home.

checking in with friends and family to make sure they're okay

I live about a mile from the scene and have friends in the area.

Allentown's infrastructure has been increasingly FUBAR in recent years. Plus we're in the midst of a pretty chilly cold snap (it was about 12 degrees last night and WINDY) that has people resorting to a variety of heating options (open ovens, space heaters, etc) which could have made for dangerous conditions.

Nothing especially ominous to see here aside from the continued crumbling of our infrastructure.

Haha 12 degrees is nice, i thought that that was cold when i was still living in allentown, well in south korea it's in the low single digits for about a month straight, THAT'S a cold snap. Still chilly, my mother's safe and that's the most important news to me, luckily it was UGI, and not PPL the company my mom works for. Guess we'll be having more PPL customers, and yeah last time I lived there in 07 the infrastructure did go to sh**. Afflerbach was a horrible mayor, and hopefully that new one does a lot better.

www.pressconnects.com...|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE


This article was just posted a little bit ago on pressconnects.com

So, it appears everything was buttoned down and performing normally, well that, to me, is another testament as to how dangerous this stuff is!!!

A routine leak-detection check of the gas main that serves the area on the day before the explosion found no problems, a spokesman for a utility said.

There's no history of leaks for that section of 12-inch cast-iron main, and there were no calls about gas odors before the explosion, said Joe Swope of Reading-based UGI Utilities Inc.

The utility used foam to seal the gas main on both ends of a one-block area at about 3:45 a.m. Thursday. It took crews some time to cut through reinforced concrete underneath the pavement, Swope said.

The blast was so powerful that it sent a flat-screen computer monitor sailing into the back of Antonio Arroyo, whose house was on the opposite end of the row from the explosion.

www.timesrecordnews.com...

Sounds like a powerful dang blast! I am afraid this will not be the last we here of these types of tragedy.
Sincere condolences for those lost and injured.

Peace,
spec

Reminiscent of Cali. not that long ago. Terrible scene.