Redwood incident

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MrVelvet

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Something major obviously is happening right now in Redwood Meadows - West Chief, 9 Heavy and 9 Support are all en route with 50 pump just getting there.

I didn't hear the details, but I will keep people up to date on what I hear.

Incident is on zone C16 Tac C4.
 

robertmac

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And no-one was home except an animal that couldn't be found. Didn't listen after that as the excitement had died. More interesting to listen to the "moose is loose" c,hase but I don't really want to get into that. Too many different perspectives.
 

Jay911

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Just before 3pm today, a natural gas explosion occurred in a house on Wolf Drive in Redwood Meadows. The owners were not home at the time, but three pets were. Two were found - one alive and one deceased - and the third is still missing.

The explosion caused violent, catastrophic damage to the entire first floor of the house, displacing all walls and severely damaging the building's internal structure to the point where it was unsafe to enter for any reason.

CFD Heavy Rescue assisted in making the above determination and performing a search on the perimeter of the house externally. There was no ensuing fire after the natural gas exploded.

Due to the unstable nature of the structure, it was demolished by heavy machinery late tonight. The homeowners have recovered some valuables and both vehicles that were in the garage at the time of the blast.

All I can say about the cause is that investigation into that is pretty much concluded.

I was officer on the Engine and spent from 3PM until just now out there. My feet feel like they're 14 inches across. I'm going to hit bed now.
 

MrVelvet

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I wondered if you were working yesterday or not Jay.

So, the house "exploded" but there was no resultant fire?
 

Jay911

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Yes - the conditions were just right for all the gas to be consumed in the actual explosion itself.

A natural gas explosion tends to be what is called a "low speed" explosion, less than the speed of sound. Damage can be severe, but most things will still remain in large chunks because the shockwave doesn't move altogether too fast, although it still has considerable pressure behind it.

A "high speed" explosion is one that comes from things like dynamite, etc., and will be well above the speed of sound in terms of the shockwave's velocity. This will produce little tiny bits of debris, i.e. house to toothpicks.

The blast yesterday was a low speed explosion.

I have some photos which, depending on permissions and vetting by the FD, I may be able to post later. Watch this space.
 

Jay911

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Ok, pics.

As seen from the driveway side.

DSC00372.jpg


Front door (next side counterclockwise from driveway side). The big gap is where the two large front doors and window were completely blown free of the structure.

DSC00389.jpg


Rear corner continuing counterclockwise. Doors seen are on the side opposite the front-door side, furthest away from the garage.

DSC00404.jpg


Front corner closest to driveway side of house, facing away from street (away from front doors). Area of most damage was a laundry room.

DSC00408.jpg
 

Jay911

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Yeah, we pulled the cars out when it was reasonably safe to do so. We attached a chain to the SUV's trailer hitch with a long pole, because it was still very unsafe to approach the building even that closely, and the trackhoe picked up the rear wheels and "walked" the SUV out onto the road. (No keys - owner out of town.) The car, we had keys for, but nobody was going in that garage. The hoe held up the garage ceiling with the bucket while one guy got directly underneath it and chained onto the car's suspension, then we dragged it out far enough to get someone in it and drive it to safety. As for damage, I've seen worse done to cars in a hail storm.

The hoe operator was friggin' amazing. He found a chest of drawers the owner had identified as containing valuables, scooped it up in the shovel, drove over to her, and placed it on the ground at her feet, 90% undamaged. :eek:
 

yyc_tbird_sc

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Personally....I'm really impressed that the house stayed standing on it's own. It's good to hear that some of the items were able to be recovered and that no one was hurt.

So...the person that "may have" caused the gas leak.....I assume they ran pretty fast?
 

stuck22

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Man you guys should get a Chat room. Here in BC we have a scanbc Chat room that people can come in and announce incidents. you guys can check it out. www.scanbc.com/irc/ I am sure if your nice we would let you use our chat room!

We Could call it the Scan WestCoast Chatroom.
 
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