(no subject)
THIS IS CRAZY COZ I LIVE RIGHT THERE AND I WORK THERE, MY CO-WORKERS ARE STILL SHITTIN BRICKS.
At Least 10 Injured In Explosion At Ford City Mall
Firefighters Expect Natural Gas As Source Of Explosion
POSTED: 8:47 pm CST January 12, 2005
UPDATED: 10:45 pm CST January 12, 2005
CHICAGO -- An explosion was reported Wednesday night at the Ford City Mall, located at 76th and Cicero.
Images: Explosion Rips Through Ford City Mall
Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said in a television report that about 10 people were injured, some of them in code red, or in serious to critical condition.
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Explosion Rips Through Mall
Three of the people injured in the explosion in the parking lot of Leona's Restaurant near the mall appeared to be in critical condition, according to Langford.
The explosion appeared to have been of natural gas "underground," and broken glass and other debris was strewn 150 feet from the restaurant parking lot, Langford said.
Lemon said that Peoples Energy crews capped off a 20 inch main shortly after 10 p.m. He said Langford wasn't sure that that pipe was the source of the explosion.
The gas company was investigating the cause of the explosion, according to Peoples Energy spokeswoman Elizabeth Castro.
Chicago Police Officer Karen Jefferson said at the scene in a rainstorm that she was off duty when she and her sister, Melissa Williams, parked their car and then the explosion occurred. The two women were about 10 feet from the explosion and said the windows of the pizza restaurant and an Old Country Buffet blew out from the force. She said the blast left a crater in the pavement and cars were flipping.
Jefferson said that she saw people trapped under cars and sections of pavement, and the explosion was "like pieces of the parking lot were raining."
Sheena Blandon, 17, of Riverdale, said she was in the mall when a "couple of cars exploded" near its entrance. As Blandon was evacuated she smelled what seemed to be gas and saw cars overturned in parking lot near the mall entrance.
"If felt like the whole mall shook," Blandon said.
There were numerous fire trucks and ambulances at the scene, and a "light truck" was providing illumination for emergency workers as of 10 p.m.
Langford said a dozen vehicles were damaged, and some overturned.
Police spokesman Carlos Herrera says the explosion occurred near a Pearle Vision store in the mall. The mall was evacuated shortly after 8:45 p.m.
"A piece of the gas main flew thorugh the air and came down through one of the buildings here," the spokesman said. "I don't have details on the injuries, I just know that we have 10 people being treated now."
One woman who was inside the mall spoke with NBC5 over the phone after the explosion.
"I was inside the mall and we were shopping there, and we heard the big explosion, which happened at about 8:30 (p.m.). Everybody ran outside the mall, the alarm went off," the woman said. "There's about 100 square feet that's blowed up."
Witnesses said several cars were overturned by the force of the blast.
"We came outside and there were cars on top of cars," one witness told Lemon.
Brianne Fondren said that when she was evacuated from the mall after the explosion, she saw the parking lot "come up" from the force and several cars were "totaled."
At 10 p.m. Fondren was still looking for her Pontiac Bonneville, which she had parked near the mall.
"It's a bad sight," she said, "it's a bad sight."
Fire Department spokeswoman Rosa Escareno said that an Emergency Medical Services Plan 2 was called at about 9 p.m for the explosion.
An EMS Plan 2 brings 10 ambulances to the scene.
Teragus Lauderdale was inside the mall when the explosion happened.
"I was in the mall when the gas line had blew up," he said. "I seen a whole crowd of people just running toward my way ... about two or three minutes later, I started smelling gas just fill up the whole mall."
Lauderdale said he rushed outside and saw the full extent of the damage.
"I went outside to check it out, and the parking lot where my car was was gone," he said. "It's a hole over there where my car used to be."
"I live about 11 blocks away from Ford City, and I heard this loud bang," witness Alme Rios said. "We actually thought a car had crashed into our building, because it was that powerful."
A Hodgkins resident said he heard "the rumble" in his suburb.
NBC5's Amy Jacobson reported that eight people were brought to Holy Cross Hospital, 2701 West 68th St., with "non-life threatening injuries." Many of them, she said, were hurt by flying glass while dining at an Old Country Buffet restaurant in the mall. The windows of the restaurant were blown out when the explosion occured.