Reports of explosions at propane depot in northwest Toronto

[ColbertWatcher]

Source: The Canadian Press (via google)

The first explosion sounded like a loud thunderclap and could be heard at least seven kilometres away.

It was followed by a series of more muffled explosions.

Clouds of black smoke could be seen billowing hundreds of metres into the air.

Read more: http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqtJYEbk8-fuqMhTAetoUpz7_yWQ

---

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3793483">Fark.com reported this first with links to YouTube videos.

Hope all you DUers in Toronto are safe!

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Here is an image from the Digg post...

Adapted from: ">Photographer: Rannie Turingan, found at: PhotoJunkie.ca, copyright, presumably Rannie Turingan.

[aquart]

2. Oy.

Way too many lighted buildings nearby to suit me.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. If you follow the fark link...

...they have videos, and google maps and a link to the city of Toronto's fire incidents page.

The newspapers/TV stations are a little slow right now.

Only one radio station has a reporter there.

[fasttense]

4. That is a huge fire.

"It was just a tremendous explosion and blew all the windows out of the house, just blew the house up, and I just managed to get out of there in time," said Robert Helman, who lives across the street from the facility, which he identified as Sunrise Propane.

Helman, who was covered in cuts and bruises, said when he went outside, he saw a "huge fireball" followed by "multiple explosions."

He said when he ran a "wave of a heat" followed him."

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Not big enough for CNN apparently.

Are you in Toronto right now?

Have family/friends there?

[Tripper11]

6. Canada is NEVER big enough for CNN or any of the others

I mean it's not like we're right above you and share a common language and massive trade...naw..just a pest holding onto some oil until America can figure out a way of getting it from us, oh, and the fresh water too....

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Pfft. I'm still shocked I'm getting more info from a message board...

...than from the "mass media".

[Tripper11]

8. Please don't be, we're used to it.

I say this being in news in Seattle..local though.
We get CBC in Seattle so it's good that I can still watch Peter Mansbridge and the CBC News...it's so different. Longer, more in depth stories. Not all crime and fires etc that we do in local news.
Although I will say we do try to do more in depth stuff compared to the other 3...but we still do the crime du jour.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. I will always be shocked that volunteers...

...linked through a series of tubes are able to share more up-to-the-minute information that professionals whose hands are tied by corporate cowardice.

[Posteritatis]

14. CNN routinely gets Canada's capital wrong

The fact that they'd barely report something like this doesn't surprise me in the least.

[Karenina]

10. THAT was a fucking HUGE EXPLOSION!

:scared:

[City Lights]

11. OMG, that YouTube video!

Wow, what an explosion! :scared: Thank goodness there were only two (as of now) injuries. Hope they're not serious.

:hug: to Toronto DUers!

[Tindalos]

12. Thanks for the heads up

More info at CBC:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/08/10/propane-fire.html

Thousands of people fled their homes in a residential neighbourhood of Toronto early Sunday following a series of explosions and a massive fire at a propane depot.

Police report at least two injuries involving people hit by broken glass and fiery debris that shot into the air after the initial blast, just before 4 a.m. ET.


Pretty scary. I have family in the Toronto area. Hope they are all safe.

[JBoy]

13. Video of one of the major explosions here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV5udSWJcZo

At 1:50, there is a huge explosion. Really quite spectacular.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Residents flee Toronto explosion (BBC)

Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes following an explosion at a propane gas plant in the north of the Canadian city of Toronto.

A two-mile (3.2km) exclusion zone was set up as police ordered residents in the Keele and Wilson areas to leave.

The series of explosions at 0350 local time (0850 BST) on Sunday also shut down one the city's busiest highways.

A veteran firefighter died of a heart attack at the scene. There were no reports of serious injury.

Witnesses described the sky lighting up in the glow of an enormous fireball before turning black with smoke, and some residents said the blast caused their houses to rock.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7552807.stm

Video link there, but I can't get any sound from it.