Cuppacafe

I don't know if this story made the news where you folk are (Walt not withstanding), but it was certainly a big deal here in CT.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn.—An explosion rocked a natural-gas power plant Sunday in Middletown, Conn., sending earthquake-like shock waves miles away. At least five people were killed, 12 were injured and an undetermined number of people were missing, authorities said.

A state official who said he was briefed by emergency personnel said the toll was unlikely to rise significantly. The official said the gas explosion was caused by a "flame device'' that a victim's son had been told was a propane heater.

To be sure, Middletown is essentially halfway across the state from me, but, well, it was close enough (my cousin owns a bar in that town and some of my friends live in that area), so yea, it's close enough. Interestingly enough. I found out about it when Walt (all the way from TX) IMed me to ask if I was OK. (Yep, we DO live in a global village, as he heard about it before me). Once I assured him that I was fine, I checked up on the folks that I knew, and then passed info along to others.

At 11:25 a.m., the explosion ripped through the Kleen Energy Systems LLC natural-gas power plant being built here in a sparse industrial area along the bank of the Connecticut River. Four pipefitters who were inside the main generator building were killed immediately, according to the state official. Emergency rescue teams, some with rescue dogs, descended on the scene and were airlifting injured workers by helicopter to nearby hospitals.

Yeah, no jokes this time out, as this is sort of a big deal around here.

The Perfessor

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 2:48 pm and is filed under A Day in the Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.