Close Call

I was watching the news last night, relaxing after a long day, when the newscaster announced their top story; a house had "exploded" and caught fire. "Intersting", I thought. The story went on. Local residents heard a loud explosion at a house (actually, a house-turned-office), saw a large ball of flame rise into the sky, and watched a man run from the house, get into a car and speed off. The guy was later located at a nearby hospital where he'd arrived with severe burns.

Then they said where the fire was. 36th and Hill Road, next to a Junior High School, on the north side of the road. The building used to be a restaurant.

That's where our photo group meets every month.

But, the images they were showing on the television didn't match up with the view I always see when I drive up to the building. I was worried, being the president of our group and all. One of our members lives right across the street. But, I wasn't hearing anything from him. Maybe he's gone out of town and missed the whole thing.

Today, I stopped by his house, where he also has his photo studio, and found out it was the building next to the building we meet in. Turns out he wasn't home when the explosion occurred, but arrived home shortly after. He said a neighbor, about a block away, heard the explosion and it was so loud that far away she thought someone had driven into their house.

No findings yet on whether the guy had set the fire or was in the office when there was a gas leak or something. Maybe I'll hear tonight on the news.

This photo is the house from my friend's front yard. They're taking off the roof, part of which was still smoldering.

Craig told me he shot about 150 pictures of the blaze, which shot flames about 40 feet into the air. As we walked around, though, we were amazed at the pattern of damage. A front office still had cardboard boxes intact on the shelves and a black office chair sitting at a desk looked in perfect condition. Apparently, the fire was confined mostly to the back of the building which was pretty much gone. If the guy was in the front office, that's why he got out alive.

I didn't have my camera with me, so another phone image.