Hazardous Explosion

October 23. 2009, under Blogr with No Comments

Last night I heard a loud explosion around 12:30am. It was as if the sound was temporarily muted. The last time I lived a similar experience was when the explosion of Rio Piedras happened. I remember being in school, I was in my Social Studies class, my book bag had wheels on it, and I heard a loud bang. It felt like a building had fallen. It all happened in slow motion, the sound around me was muffled and I remember seeing my book bag elevate and fall. We all thought it was an earthquake. Minutes later an explosion was confirmed. Humberto Vidal, a shoe store in the the commercial sector of Rio Piedras had exploded due to a gas leak. People died and many were hurt. My school served as a shelter for 2 weeks. I had to take my classes at an auditorium in the university. I was in fifth grade. My school was only 2 blocks away from the explosion. The aftermath was terrible. It’s just one of those things that I’ll never forget.

Last night was a whole different story. The explosion happened in Cataño and I was no where near that place. It turns out several fuel tanks from Caribbean Petroleum Corporation exploded. Luckily no casualties have been reported. The only people hurt were those driving on the expressway near the area. The blast caused windows to shatter, thus hurting drivers and passengers with broken glass.

When I heard the blast, the whole street reverberated. My reporter sister got a call minutes later and was told that the huge flames could be seen from the far side of Bayamón. AP had preliminary statements at 1am saying that the explosion was caused by a small plane crash but that was later confirmed as false. We kept on refreshing the page to check on the progress of the story. They’re still investigating what caused the explosion.

This morning on the way to my daughter’s school, the mushroom cloud of smoke was clearly visible in the sky. It was huge. There were no clouds around the giant smoke cloud. Since the gasoline will continue to burn, liberating more contaminants into the atmosphere, the weather forecast for precipitation is acid rain. Isn’t that nice? I’m actually shocked it hasn’t rained yet. It usually rains every afternoon if not every other day.

There have been several photos, videos, and reports on the internet since early this morning. My only concern is the acid rain and pulmonary problems. The winds are bound to change direction, blowing the smoke towards the nearest municipalities.

The big question everyone is asking is what caused the explosion? So much shit is happening on this island at the moment. It wouldn’t be a far fetched idea to believe that it was sabotage caused by an angry group of people. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it turns out to be lack of maintenance. Time will tell.