Strip Club in Downtown Springfield, MA leveled in gas explosion!
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s..._building.html
Watching it on my local news right now. No reports yet on injuries.





Strip Club in Downtown Springfield, MA leveled in gas explosion!
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s..._building.html
Watching it on my local news right now. No reports yet on injuries.




Holy shit! I used to work across the street from there!





Holy shit! That's not a small explosion! Amazing that very few people were hurt. Apparently they had reported the leak before but nothing was found; somebody's gonna be in trouble for this one, lol. The insurance company isn't going to want to pay up and not get something back for the gas company already knowing about the leak...





The club was evacuated right before it happened. It could have been a lot worse if it had been a busy night shift rather than daytime. The same ownership has several clubs in the city and outlying area.





Whenever I see stories like this I always wonder if it was for the insurance. I know a guy who did that in Daytona a few years back. I was really surprised he got the money. And not at all surprised he then vanished with it.
ETA--OK I just read the story. Probably not an insurance scam, if it was that catastrophic.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________





Yeah, It was definitely a gas explosion. The owner would have been taking a huge chance if he did it on purpose. The club that's gone was not all that busy but the one across the street is a big money-maker and the explosion could have very well damaged the whole block under different circumstances. It's been years but I used to be a regular visitor to those clubs. The city and those clubs have been on the decline for a while. Still, it was a place to work and not all of those girls will be able to get shifts at the owner's other clubs.





On the one hand, I IMMEDIATELY thought "insurance scam"; on the other hand, it appears the leak and gas smell was reported weeks before and had been investigated a couple of times without finding the source. I am AMAZED that the gas company investigated the leak and upon finding nothing - left without further investigation and LEFT THE GAS ON!! As I said before - I see the insurance company going after somebody for the loss, lol.
If it WAS intentional, it's likely they didn't expect such a large explosion and were only after a fire. If you're not an expert on such things, it's easy for them to get out of hand...



Reports I heard was that it was right next door to a daycare business that was also extensively damaged in the blast. Fortunately, with it being the Friday after the holiday.... the daycare was closed. Imagine if it was open and the kids were outside playing or seeing it happened at 5:30 pm ...if they were in the process of being picked up.
edit: The link provided did briefly mention the daycare next door.





Glad no one died. This scares me. Sometimes my club smells like gas.





It's a miracle that no one was killed. The media has had chopper footage all morning (two or three blocks are closed right now) and there is just an empty lot with some ruble where the building used to be. Evidently the gas company evacuated the building about an hour before it happened. Most of the 18 injured were police, fire and gas company employees, none seriously. If it had been a busy Saturday night in downtown Springfield everyone in the club would have been killed as well as many people outside.
According to CNN the club was Scores - which was closed. According to reviews on TUSCL the club was closed due to poor management. Here is the CNN report:
CNN) -- Eighteen people were injured early Friday evening when a gas-fueled explosion ripped through a strip club in the western Massachusetts city of Springfield, the city's mayor said.
Those in the club and nearby buildings had evacuated by the time the blast occurred at 5:25 p.m., Mayor Dominic Sarno said.
Nine of those injured were Springfield firefighters, four were gas company employees, two were police officers, two were civilians, and one was a municipal water and sewer department employee, the mayor said. Earlier, a police sergeant said more civilians were hurt and all were transported to Baystate Medical Center or Mercy Medical Center.
"Through God's mercy, we are not aware of any fatalities," Sarno said.
People as far away as South Hadley, 10 miles north, felt the blast.
Video showed that the facade of one building was shredded by the blast, while glass from blown-out windows littered streets blocks away.
Besides the leveled multistory structure that housed Club Scores -- which Sarno referred to as "ground zero" -- 12 buildings suffered significant damage, and at least a dozen others had collateral damage, Springfield fire Commissioner Joseph Conant said.
Columbia Gas spokeswoman Sheila Doiron told reporters Friday that a call about a strong gas odor came in at around 4:20 p.m.
The gas company's employees were on site in about 25 minutes, and they shut off the gas to the building soon thereafter, according to Conant. The explosion came 15 minutes later.
Overhead video from CNN affiliate WWLP showed what appeared to be police lights flashing near an otherwise calm scene until a huge burst of fire soared into the sky. That was followed by thick plumes of black smoke.
Within hours, Conant said firefighters were able to bring "the fire situation ... under control."
The officials who spoke at Friday night's news conference said they had no knowledge that any of the injuries suffered in the blast and its aftermath are life-threatening.
None of the eight patients brought into Baystate Medical Center are in critical condition, said hospital spokeswoman Jane Albert. She said hospital officials have been told they no more injured are coming.
Authorities are working to determine what caused the fire, with state authorities assisting local first responders -- including members of the city's arson and bomb unit -- at the scene. Doiron, from Columbia Gas company, said "there have been no measurable readings of natural gas at this point" that might indicate more widespread leaks.
A shelter has been set up at nearby Central High School for anyone displaced by the explosion and evacuations in the vicinity, said Sarno.
CNN's Greg Botelho, Pauline Kim and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.





The club has been closed down a couple of times over the years for brief periods (as have a few others in the area) but it was open for business yesterday prior to the explosion. The same ownership group owns all or most of the clubs in downtown Springfield and also a few in outlying areas. While in it's latest incarnation as "Scores" the place was not exactly packed it was most definitely open for business every day and, as I mentioned previously, there are dancers, bouncers, bartenders and other staff who do not have jobs right now.



Officials announced it was a utility worker's error that caused the explosion. He was attempting to locate the source of the leak with a metal probe that tests natural gas levels and the probe damaged a pipe causing a leak. The gas built up in the building and a spark (source ?) ignited the gas causing the explosion.
Last edited by Raider; 11-25-2012 at 03:25 PM. Reason: Typo
I deleted my joke-post after I saw photos of that explosion.Glad no one was hurt.
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