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From WHAM-TV, Rochester, New York
Homeowners and people in the North Winton Village neighborhood of Rochester were stunned Wednesday when a home explosion shook the area, killing one man.
Rochester firefighters and police blocked off the area of 64 Illinois Street while they investigated the incident. The area reopened a little after 5 a.m. Thursday.
Firefighters say the Rochester home explosion happened at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Crews for Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) said they were checking the area after neighbors called and said they smelled gas. A crew worker said a man inside the home would not answer the door, at which point the Rochester Fire Department was alerted.
“There were reports from people there was a person in the house,” fire chief Willie Jackson said.
Rochester home explosion:
Significant damage to area
Firefighters said the home exploded shortly after they arrived on scene.
Several neighboring houses were evacuated as a precaution, and the two houses next door sustained a significant amount of damage.
At about 11 p.m., firefighters said a man’s body was found inside the home. His identity has not yet been determined.
“We want to be safe,” Jackson said. “We don’t know if the cause of this explosion is actually natural gas or something else. We want to keep people safe, keep people a distance away from the structure until we find out what the actual cause was.”
Rochester home explosion:
‘I felt the house shake’
The explosion came as a shock to neighbors.
“I was sitting in the living room with my husband, and all of a sudden I felt the house shake or vibrate – and I felt it almost like an explosion,” said Lauren Valenti, who lives five doors down from the scene.
Said Thomas Chaffer, who has an art studio nearby: “There was a ‘whomp’ noise. It wasn’t a kaboom sound, like an explosion. And everything shifted to the left. The trees moved, the houses had a little vibrate, you could feel the air push you – one time – that’s it.”
Rochester home explosion:
Firefighters search for dog
Jackson said they received reports that the man had a dog. He said firefighters have not yet located the dog, and it is not known whether it escaped.
A neighbor came by the scene on a bicycle Thursday morning and laid flowers at the scene, paying respects to a deceased neighbor.
A New York man was killed and numerous homes damaged in a Rochester home explosion Wednesday night in the neighborhood of Nort Winton Village.
Kentucky pipeline explosion:
911 recordings released
From WKYT-TV, Lexington, Kentucky: The emergency dispatch recordings from the Texas Eastern pipeline explosion in Lincoln County reveals a search for survivors, and pleas for more water and manpower by firefighters.
“I want you to go ahead and contact the coroner’s office have them respond to the staging area, on 127 for the incident,” one dispatcher said.
One person died in the Aug. 1 event, and five homes were destroyed. After the explosion, people said they could see the ensuing fire from more than 30 miles away.
First responders focused their efforts on finding people. “Both residents that were not accounted for are now accounted for behind Dollar General in Moreland,” one dispatcher said.
The 911 center also released a 41-page report detailing the emergency response that mentioned Colby Reik, a volunteer special deputy, who rescued two people. A spokesperson for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said Reik pulled the couple out of a burning structure.
Dispatchers asked Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials to limit airspace to national news media asking for information. There were even calls dealing with helping animals impacted by the fire.
The cause of the pipeline explosion is still not known and remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The pipeline is owned by Canadian multinational energy corporation Enbridge Inc.
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