The clean-up is now going on in Pontoon Beach following that house explosion on Friday morning. Neighbors we spoke with still marvel at the fact that no one was killed or seriously injured from the blast.

But they'll also tell you there were some close calls. I spoke with one gentleman who said that he had just left for work moments before the explosion. He drove past the house perhaps :30 before it blew up. Others tell me that school kids wait for the bus just a few houses up from the home that exploded.

You think of all the "what if's" after something like this. One woman said how much she loves the neighborhood. She tells me it's the kind of place where neighbors walk the streets on warm evenings and visit with each other (we had an indication of what kind of place it is on Friday night---as I was waiting to go "live" from the neighborhood there was a knock on the door of our microwave truck which we use to edit the video and beam it back to the station. A woman had a plate of cookies for the photographer and me. She thought we could use them after covering the explosion all day. I've been a reporter for 23 years and I don't think anyone has ever brought me a plate of cookies on a story.)

The blast site has become something of an attraction for people. Not just the folks from the neighborhood but others from the surrounding area are coming by to check it out for themselves. The place was a beehive of activity when we were there today. One neighbor just shrugged off the

1 Comments

Madyson Lord said:

Hey, I just wanted to tell you that i live about 10 house away from this house. Yesterday morning is something i will never forget. I could have been outside waiting for my bus in 4 minutes, but instead a house blows up. I called 911 while running(well, im on crutches right now.. but you know what i mean) down the street to see if everybody is alright. The streets were crowded with curious/frantic neighbors. I was crying. You used my 911 call in some of your clips all around your website, and in what im guessing to be the 'story'(im not sure whatelse to call it) that you used this morning on T.V. I could talk about how crazy yesterday was all day long, So if you want to ever know anything just e-mail me. Bye(:

February 14, 2009 11:10 PM

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.