A gas leak triggered a powerful explosion in an East Harlem apartment building this morning, injuring dozens of people and killing at least seven. More than 200 firefighters responded to the blast, which completely destroyed one building and most of another.
At least 15 people went missing after a series of explosions Monday night at a propane gas plant in Tavares, Florida. A Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman initially said “a lot” of people were believed to have been killed, but all 15 missing workers were eventually found alive, though seven were injured.
Police have begun a criminal investigation into the train derailment explosion that took five lives in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec on Sunday. Forty people are still unaccounted for.
An explosion at a chemical plant in Louisiana this morning has injured many—though no reports of fatalities as of yet. Hazmat units are attending to the accident at Williams Olefins Chemical Plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The plant churns out 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of propylene per year. The industrial area is a little over 50 miles northwest from New Orleans, 30 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.
Over 40 people, and this one woman who looks just like Lindsay Lohan, were injured after an apparent natural-gas explosion rocked central Prague on Monday, causing the evacuation of several nearby buildings. Only four were seriously hurt in the blast, and there are no reports of fatalities.
A giant explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas has killed between five and 15 people and injured over 160, prompting a widespread evacuation of the small town. The blast was felt and heard for 45 miles, and the force of it reportedly leveled dozens of homes and businesses, a nursing home, an apartment complex, and a nearby middle school. From DallasNews.com:
Nineteen tourists are dead and two are injured following a hot air balloon explosion 1,000 feet above Luxor, Egypt. The balloon apparently collided with a high-pressure electrical cable, detonating one of its gas cylinders; as it plummeted to the ground, some passengers leaped out "from about the height of a seven-story building," a witness told the BBC. Eighteen, including tourists from the UK, China, Japan, France, Hungary, and Egypt died at the scene, their bodies strewn about the field where the balloon crashed, while the nineteenth victim died in surgery five hours later. The two survivors, the pilot and one passenger, a British tourist, may have saved their lives by jumping. A 2009 hot air balloon accident in Luxor, in which more than a dozen tourists were injured, prompted a six-month suspension of flights as safety standards were tightened and pilots were re-trained; today's accident, by all accounts the worst-ever of its kind, has prompted the city to indefinitely suspend flights. [BBC | AJE]
A huge natural gas explosion—"like an earthquake," one witness said—burned a Kansas City restaurant to the ground yesterday evening, injuring 16, some critically, and leaving one person unaccounted for. Authorities believe a contractor working near JJ's Restaurant, a three-decade institution overlooking Kansas City's iconic Country Club Plaza, hit a natural gas line, and people reported a strong odor of gas in the area—so strong JJ's employees cancelled reservations, shut down the kitchen, and asked patrons to leave the restaurant—hours before the 6 p.m. explosion shattered nearby windows and sent shockwaves nearly a mile through the city. One woman is still missing, and Kansas City police are using cadaver dogs to search for her. Some 100 fire fighters responded to the four-alarm fire; it was under control by 8 p.m. [Kansas City Star | KCTV]
At least one meteorite crashed into Russia earlier today, causing several giant explosions and forcing schools and offices to be evacuated. The meteorite reportedly landed in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, where witnesses said the explosions shattered the windows of nearby buildings and disrupted cell phone service. There were over 400 injuries (Update: now upgraded to 950), and damage was reported in six cities. Information is still coming in and we'll update accordingly, but for now check out the amazing videos and photos from the scene. (We'll be updating with new video and photo throughout the day, so check back for new stuff.)
An explosion on a bus carrying Israeli youth in the Bulgarian resort town of Burgas killed as many as seven people and injured at least 20 at around 5:20 p.m. local time. It's unclear what happened — apparently some are claiming it was a female suicide bomber, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry says it wasn't a suicide bombing but rather a bomb in the trunk — but Bulgaria has been increasing security on resort towns frequented by Israelis since the January discovery of a suspicious package on an Israeli tourist bus.
Here is a video of some Chinese soldiers tossing around a live hand grenade, dumping it into a hole, and then acrobatically leaping away from the blast in unison like some weird Busby Berkeley number from Hell. When did it happen? Is it real? Why are the doing this? Who knows. The Atlantic Wire has some ideas. Go China!
Another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed today by a magnetic bomb attached to his car. Iran blames the U.S. and/or Israel, but couldn't this have just been an accident? Who hasn't had a magnetic bomb attached to the underside of their car at one time or another?
