My uncle (who lives in Star Valley, Wyoming) sent this email out to the family today:

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Hello,

For those who haven't yet heard, a house exploded in our neighborhood (about 300 yards from our home) at around 12:30 am of the day we were driving home. Apparently a gas explosion. Fortunately the owners were away for the weekend. Many homes in the area were significantly damaged. Thank god our home did not suffer any damage. Distance and local topology helped to deflect the shock wave. I've attached a few photos I just took of the place. We know the owners; the woman almost died from a large tumor last year. Now this...!

There used to be a large two story (plus basement) house here. I saw some wood and plywood sheets at last 100 yards away!



Debris across the sgreet.



Ditto



Used to be a basement. Those are concrete foundations.

That's is insane

I wonder what lit it?

OMG... is this for real? That is horrible.

Wow, that's scary. That's an insane amount of destruction.

I just noticed the intact propane canister in the lower middle of the first shot.

Seems like I've been worrying about the wrong type of explosion at my house, then. Propane tanks always make me a little nervous.

Whoa.

Yea, right next to the two spools of detonating cord ... Hmmmmmm?

That was quite the explosion, good thing nobody was home.

How does this happen? Is it caused by a gas leak then a pilot light or the furnace coming on ignite it?

Freakin' cool!

Holy ____.

"Defective propane lines. "

Didn't you ever watch the Bourne movies?

Magazine inserted into a turned on bread toaster then a gas line is ruptured in the house, whenever the magazine lights off the house goes up in a ball of flames ... EZPZ.

Very fortunate there weren't casualties. Could have been a faulty furnace/igniter with a gas buildup.

We do local gas company repairs when they have to shut down or change a service. This is more common than most would think. I can recall a few in this area just this past year.

We're getting a new natural gas water heater installed Saturday morning. If I'm not posting by Saturday night, my plumber made a mistake!

:::breaking news....NORAD claims it has seen a square shaped object about 12'x12' flying through the Northern Hemisphere at subsonic speeds....:::

The object appears to be causing any music source within 1 mile to sound much worse.

Standing waves....WE'VE GOT STANDING WAVES!

Say, I wonder if this is how the first Borgs launched their spacecraft?

Nah, the Borg have smaller noses. And smaller ears.

And they don't like woodworking, either.

Wood. Is. Irrelevant.

::making the Home Alone face::

Clear and Present Danger. It was a cellulose smart bomb dropped from Colorado.

Ah, the phat bomb.

Wow! That's pretty incredible. Glad no one was hurt! I can just imagine coming home to find that...

"What the ... &@#$&#@!!"

I like how having the trees all around really adds to the overall effect of the pictures.

+1.

I noticed that too. The trees give a nice sense of depth and scale to the magnitude of the junk hurled from the explosion.

Especially since they catch some of the debris; always more powerful when you see your stuff hanging from up high...

lol

Insulation and vapor barrier, which was once contained underneath layers of drywall and siding, now 40 feet up in a tree = one hell of a bang

Glad everyone survived. I know it sounds awful, but I think this happens every couple of years in Toronto, and probably every other major (cold) city as well.

On a positive note, these are definitely the best pictures I have seen yet.

Yep, or any ignition source - thermostat cycling on, for instance. Judging from the pics, I'd say they hit 14:1 air to fuel ratio on the money. Really good thing no one was home.

Scott

Most of the time this is propane. It is heavier than air and will pool on the floor and build up. Natural gas is lighter than air and will vent up and disapate easier.