Thanksgiving Week Post 4 - A Day to Remember

Today was a scary day. I was cooking away in my kitchen listening to music. The doorbell rang and a strange woman was standing at my door. She said that there was a really strong gas smell outside my house. I was sort of confused by her statement so she said it again and I leaned out my door to smell the air (there was no gas smell inside my house). Sure enough there was a strong gas odor. She said it was so strong that it made her dizzy so I stepped outside and sure enough she was right. She suggested maybe we should do something so I told her I would call ConEd (the gas company) and shut the door. I tried to find the number for ConEd but couldn't so I called 911. I shut off my oven, turned off my thermostat, grabbed my coat and went outside to wait for the fire department. The smell was so strong I had to wait across the street.
About 4 firetrucks came to my house to investigate. I talked with the firemen and explained what happened. They ended up breaking into the basement apartment below mine and found it full of gas. They said there was a leak on the street so they shut off my gas main and the one on the street. The smell decreased but didn't go away completely. The firemen slowly left as ConEd showed up and took over. I went back inside to put food away and regroup. My basement neighbor found a locksmith to fix his broken-in door. I was sitting at my dining room table on the phone with NetFlix discussing with them how I received a mailer with no DVD in it when all of a sudden THERE WAS A LOUD EXPLOSION AND THE ENTIRE HOUSE SHOOK! I saw my neighbor and the locksmith run out the front of the building so I ran out my back door. There was glass all over the back drive. I ran around to the front of the house (with the NetFlix operator blabbing something about a free DVD for my trouble). Then I saw that there was black smoke pouring out of the house 2 doors down. The fire department was already back and trying to get in to the house to put out the fire. It was a gas explosion 2 doors down. I could have been killed. If they hadn't aired out the basement apartment in my building it could have blown too. I was shaking and called Greg who was almost home. That is when I found out there was a woman in the apartment that exploded. I prayed they would get to her fast. They pulled her out just as Greg got home. They brought her up the sidewalk and past us. Her skin was burned and falling off her body but she was alive. She is in critical condition last I heard with burns on 90% of her body. I cried.At that point everything went nuts. There were over 35 emergency vehicles on our street and in our neighborhood. Firemen, police, EMT, EMS, auxiliary police, hazmat, anti-terrorism squad, community resource teams, red cross, and coned. They evacuated all the buildings on our block and pushed us back farther and farther from our homes. They couldn't find the leak. The reports came and tried to interview us. I refused to be on camera but a lot of people said things that weren't really accurate. Greg and I went to a nearby restaurant to use the bathroom, eat, talk and wait. We went back to the police line and waited for info. I ran out of the house with no coat, no wallet, no phone, just my house phone which didn't work that far from my house. We were both pretty cold. Eventually we found out the red cross had set up a disaster area for the residents who were evacuated. It was warm there. We spent several hours in PS199 (grade school). We met many of our neighbors, very nice people. We ate snacks and drank hot cocoa. Our city councilmen came and talked to us and kept us updated. We arranged a place to sleep with a friend just in case. Around 10pm they came and told us we could go back home. We had to be escorted home by a police officer. Luckily I had left my doors unlocked when I ran out because they broke down every door on the block that was locked checking for fire and to air them out. The fire commissioner came to talk to me because he found out the 911 call came from my house. He was very nice. I explained to him all about my tofu turkey I was making when this all happened. We are home now but we can't sleep. Good thing since ConEd is still outside jackhammering the street and working to get our gas back on. I am wearing a red cross blanket because it is very cold in here.I am so thankful to be alive today. Greg and I agree that it doesn't matter tomorrow if our table cloth matches our napkins or if the tofu turkey turns out. We really just want to be together and thank God for so many blessings. Please pray for the woman 2 doors down in the hospital tonight that she will be well taken care of and would recover. And say an extra prayer of blessing on the woman who knocked on my door. She didn't have to and if she didn't it could have been much worse.

**The photo at the top (daytime) was the first time the fire department came. At that time the whole thing was sort of a strange funny thing that was happening. The other photos are from after we got back in. I wish I had an areal shot of all the emergency vehicles. It was amazing all the response. By the time I got back to my camera it was just big digging and crane equipment. There is a guard outside watching the basement until my neighbor gets back (they are guarding all the doors they broke-in until the residents return). They think we will get our gas back really soon.