Photo's taken in 2006 Music : What you don't know / Mike Turcotte ( Copyright MTM 2024 )
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DANVERS, Mass. — Jim Glavin planned a quiet early morning, with a few hours of reclining on his couch and watching TV. His plans were abruptly interrupted. A chemical plant across the street erupted with a spectacular pair of explosions — throwing Glavin off his couch and sending a blast felt all the way into New Hampshire.
Door blown off
Glavin, 70, found his feet, then found his kitchen floor littered with shattered windows and the contents of his cabinets. His back door was blown off the hinges and resting on the opposite stairs. Floor supports in his cellar were knocked over, and the house twisted on its foundation.
Outside, a ball of flame rose high above the neighborhood.
Glavin called out to his son and daughter, and they joined their neighbors in a quick exodus.
"I thought for sure a plane exploded," Glavin said. "I'd swear I was in Lebanon or something. I've never been so scared in my life."
The explosions occurred about 2:50 a.m. Wednesday at CAI Inc., a manufacturer of solvents and inks. They sparked a 10-alarm fire that attracted a response from 30 cities and towns surrounding this town about 20 miles northeast of Boston. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt.
The chemical plant, which was empty at the time, was leveled, and officials said it could take weeks to reconstruct the accident and determine the cause. The roof on a building holding a pizza shop and bakery was torn open and caved in. Fire Chief James Tutko said the nearly 90 homes in the neighborhood all suffered some damage, and up to 25 may need to be rebuilt.
"It looks like a war zone, that's the only thing I can say," he said.
Gov. Mitt Romney, who toured the site, said the devastation was shocking.
"The miracle is you have the equivalent of a 2,000-pound bomb going off in a residential neighborhood at night when everybody is home, and no one's dead and no one is seriously injured," the governor said.
Residents in the most severely affected areas would not be allowed back into their homes until at least Friday, Tutko said at a press conference Wednesday night.
Staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross were scheduled to staff an assessment center Friday and Saturday to help displaced residents.
U.S. Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, said the fact so many people were prone — asleep in bed — may have prevented more injuries.
"You can see where the blast went in one window and blew out through windows on the opposite side of the house," he said.
Several small structural fires still burned several hours after the explosion. Firefighters attacked them with foam to avoid creating dangerous runoff into nearby waterways.
"All of us at CAI are shocked and devastated by this accident," CAI treasurer Paul Sartorelli said
