[Vision2020] Apartment Explodes in Moscow

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 20, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Apartment explodes in Moscow
By Holly Bowen Daily News staff writer 
No significant injuries were reported after an explosion and fire early Thursday morning displaced the residents of three units in a Moscow apartment complex.
The explosion occurred shortly after 5 a.m. on the second floor of a four-unit building of the Elysian apartment complex at the northwest corner of Fifth and Blaine streets.
Moscow Fire Chief Ed Button said the cause of the explosion is still under investigation. The blast blew out several windows, caused an attic fire and deformed the structure of the building.
"This could have been so tragic and terrible," Button said.
The explosion was originally assumed to have been related to a natural gas furnace inside the apartment. According to Button, one of the residents was up until about 1 a.m. and didn't smell gas but did notice an odor similar to burning plastic.
Gary Day, his wife and two children were sleeping in the apartment below when they were awoken by the explosion, which he compared to a war zone.
"I had no idea what happened," he said. "I had never experienced anything like that in my life. I thought we were dead."
He said the ceiling caved into his bedroom and destroyed the bathroom. Meanwhile, his daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs from her room.
"It took me 10 minutes to find my phone (to call 911)," he said.
Everyone safely evacuated the building, including the couple who lived in the apartment where the explosion originated and the residents of another apartment in the building. The fourth apartment was vacant.
Day said he got a scratch on the head and a cut on his foot, but was otherwise uninjured.
"We just found our cat," he added. "She had never been outside before."
Day, a University of Idaho law student, said his family planned to stay with friends until they could get into a new apartment.
He said they just moved to Moscow from Arizona, so many of their belongings are still in storage, but another friend who works at a pawn shop was helping him replace damaged items.
The American Red Cross of Greater Idaho's North Central Disaster Response Team responded to the scene and is providing the affected families with food, clothing, lodging, comfort kits and handmade quilts made and donated by the KRLC Quilters of Lewiston.
Staff from nearby Lena Whitmore Elementary School also responded with donations and support for those affected.
Residents were allowed to retrieve their belongings after the fire department extinguished the blaze. Button said once all the items were retrieved, the building would be boarded up and declared unsafe.
About 25 Moscow Volunteer Firefighters responded to the scene and had everything cleaned up by 3:30 p.m.
The Elysian apartment complex is currently owned by Apartment Rentals Inc. According to a Moscow Historic Preservation Commission newsletter from 2009, the complex was constructed beginning in 1948, when it was called Blaine Manor.
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A Moscow volunteer firefighter scoops insulation out of an apartment on south Blaine Street following an explosion in Moscow on Thursday.  Geoff Crimmins/Daily News

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Seeya later, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Post Falls, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown
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