Gas blast demolishes Grand Rapids businesses - Grand Rapids, MI - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

GRAND RAPIDS -- A gas explosion in the Eastown area of Grand Rapids has demolished a building housing several businesses and left seven people injured -- miraculously, none seriously.Police immediately began evacuating surrounding buildings and set to work putting out the fire.

"All of Eastown shook," one witness said.

The building is across the street from Eastown icon Yesterdog. The explosion blew out the windows in the upstairs of the building housing Yesterdog, while windows were broken out in the restaurant.

Betsy Shafer, 23, lives next door to the building that exploded. She heard a something "that sounded like an earthquake" and shook her house.

"I ran to the window and the two-story building totally collapsed and then it started on fire," Shafer said.

Thick black and white smoke rolled out of the building, which is also next door to Eastown Deli.

Officers shut off a wide area., and DTE crews got on the site at 4 p.m.

Smoke was extremely brown and dense a block away from the explosion, which occurred next to the Eastown Cafe, 410 Ethel Avenue SE, and across the street from Sami's Party Store, 1499 Wealthy Street SE.

The building next to the cafe was a pile of rubble, with flames shooting 20 feet into the air. A nearby telephone pole was sheared 15 feet above the ground. Firefighters were sitting on the ground, shooting water atop the pile of rubble.

Dan O'Brien, 414 Giddings Avenue SE, said he was sitting in his house and heard a huge bang that he thought was in his attic. He ran outside to see people rushing down the street, away from the scene of the explosion on Ethel Avenue SE. O'Brien said he saw one injured person being removed from the area of the explosion.

"It was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life," O'Brien said, after a firefighter told him to leave his house for at least a couple hours.

Firefighters secured an area at least one block away on all sides of the explosion.

Another nearby resident, Annmarie Duffy, at the corner of Wealthy and Giddings, said, "My whole house shook.I didn't see smoke or fire for awhile. I heard it and I felt it."

The explosion occurred at Kobos & Sense, a copy center and Internet salon that moved in to the area about a month ago. It was the former location of the Pepper Moon Gallery.

Kevin Peterson, of 352 Hampton Ave., who lives less than a mile away, said he felt the house shake by the explosion.

"My whole house shook and I had to go out to see whether I still had a roof on my house," said Peterson. "It's still smoking a lot."

He said he saw people on stretchers being carried away from the scene, where flames were shooting out of the roof.

Four people escaped from Kobos & Sense, 1502 Wealthy St. SE, after the explosion, and seven were hurt, mostly with cuts, bruises and burns, said Grand Rapids Police Lt. Ralph Mason.

DTE Energy had been working on the building because of a gas leak. The gas had started to accumulate so badly that workers decided to evacuate the building.

As they were in the process of evacuating, the building exploded. There were Grand Rapids Police officers at a building across the street when it happened, and they rushed in to pull some people out, Mason said.

A spokesman for DTE Energy confirmed that an employee responded to reports of a gas leak about 3 p.m. at 1500 Wealthy SE and 1502 Wealthy SE.

According to John Austerberry, the employee arrived on the scene about 3:20 p.m. and was investigating when the explosion occurred.

"He did not appear to be seriously injured. He was not taken to the hospital," he said.

He said he was not aware what caused the leak or explosion.

"That kind of information probably won't be immediately forthcoming," he said.

Four people got out of the building in Grand Rapids' Eastown after it exploded, and one of them needed help to walk out, said Mike Dykhouse, owner of Eastown Antiques. He ran over to help the evacuees.

One of his employees saw the explosion happen, Dykhouse said. "He saw the building go up in the air and then explode," Dykhouse said. "It was like a bomb went off."

Neighborhood residents said a health and fitness center operates on the second floor, but those classes usually run only in the evenings.

Gas is still leaking in Grand Rapids' Eastown. Officials say they need to shut down the electricity before they can shut down the gas.

Nick Torres, the manager for Yesterdog, a popular Eastown restaurant across the street, said he was putting cheese on hot dogs at the front window when he felt a change in air pressure.

"It was like a shock wave. Then I heard an explosion," Torres said.

Torres and a co-worker both dove to the ground, then rose to see the building across the street flattened. They ran outside to see if there was anything they could do, but police were already there.

The building destroyed by the explosion in Grand Rapids' Eastown is owned by Mary Clarke, longtime member of the Eastown Business Association.

The building at 1500/1502 Wealthy Street SE housed:
- Kobos & Sense, a copy shop.

- Eastown Properties, the name of Clarke's business

- Shamanic Healing Center

- Picture This & Screen Printing

- The Neil Patrick's Hair Design

Marwan Kayyali, co-owner of Pita House, across the street from the scene of the Eastown exploson, said he was sitting in the restaurant about 3:30 p.m. and heard a huge explosion. He went to the window in time to see 1500 Wealthy collapse.

"It was hell," Kayyali said.

Some residents as far as Wilcox Park, about three blocks north of the explosion site, felt the ground shake. Witnesses saw two victims on stretchers and neck braces. "There were so many sirens you couldn't hear anything but sirens" said Raymond Saylor.

He had just pulled into the Wolfgang's Restaurant parking lot at 1530 Wealthy St. SE when four police cars raced past. He followed the action and was stunned.

"It was a shock. Everyone was taking pictures with their phones. It was a shock and kinda like you didn't want to stay there and watch but you couldn't really turn away," said 31-year-old Saylor.

"Fire was coming out the front side and back, everywhere there was windows," Saylor said.

Type of publication: Internet Only When was the article reported?: 02/26/2008 Publication: M LIve Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Business/Finance

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