One Evansville, Indiana, home was completely leveled in a massive blast on Wednesday, killing the couple who owned it, though it seems their cat survived. A neighbor next door is also listed as a fatality. According to officials, a total of 39 houses have been damaged and some are unlivable. The cause remains unconfirmed but looks a lot like a gas leak.
Cause of blast unconfirmed
A structural collapse team was instantly on the ground “to survey buildings that were thought to be in danger of collapsing” after a massive blast destroyed an entire neighborhood.
Officials asked residents to stay clear until they could get everything stabilized the best they could. By Thursday, the locals were being allowed back to survey their damage on a case-by-case basis.
Charlie Hite, age 43, and his 37-year-old wife Martina Hite were both killed in the blast. Neighbor Jessica Teague, 29, is listed as the third victim. Charlie was expecting to be picked up by his brother Steve.
With @EvansvillePD, @EvansvilleFD, @EVV_EMA82, AMR and Building Commission on North Weinbach Avenue.
Our first responders and city departments will continue to keep residents in the Willemette Village/Wesselman Park neighborhoods safe and informed. pic.twitter.com/n0RhQY6zkd
— Mayor Lloyd Winnecke (@MayorWinnecke) August 10, 2022
The pair worked as equipment managers for the local Harrison High School football team. Steve was about five minutes away when the explosion happened.
A grand total of 39 homes were affected in the 1000 block of North Weinbach Avenue. Besides the three killed in the blast, officials with the Evansville Fire Department relate “another person was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.”
Each of the affected structures was damaged in degrees based on how close they were to the main explosion. Damage runs the gamut from “a blown-out window to being uninhabitable.”
ATF came and went
All sorts of agencies went crawling in, around, and through the blast wreckage, including Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. ATF came and went rather quickly, so nobody is speculating about anything sinister or illegal.
It looks a lot like a gas leak but the gas company isn’t quite ready to admit that yet. They want to know what went wrong and which side of the meter any potential leak happened on before they start making statements.
The fire chief was especially thankful to the local community for providing “refreshments for first responders.” Donut Bank, McDonald’s and Mission BBQ were especially helpful. The latest blast update came at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Officials relate that “they were able to have a thorough secondary search and didn’t find any more victims.” Also, they’re “now learning that no animals died in the explosion and only one cat was rescued.” The couple who died were listed as not having children but having pets, so the cat is likely theirs.
At this time, the gas company really wants to know what caused that blast, and they’re hoping it wasn’t them. “CenterPoint Energy crews are doing tests on the integrity of the gas line from the main to the meter.” All they have to say, so far, is, “surveys are showing no natural gas detected in the air outside the home, and no work was being done at the time near the area of the explosion.”
Now that the structure crews made at least an initial survey, they tagged houses for entry. “a ‘red‘ tagged home means no entry is allowed. ‘Yellow‘ means you can enter with an escort and ‘green‘ is free to enter.“
