House That Exploded Saturday (1/2/16)

[Bill Robertson]

I was in Tulsa over the weekend. I saw a banner on th KOCO app that a house had exploded in NW OKC. A bit later I saw an update that it was Whispering Hollow Drive. Odd, I lived on that street. A bit later my daughter texted me that our old house had blown up! She texted pictures of the mailbox that I had made, the tree I planted and a flattened house in the background. WOW! My first new house, that I saw built from the dirt up is gone. Weird feeling. I stopped by it when I got home and KOCO was there. I ended up on camera. The whole thing has brought back, and keeps bringing back memories of the house being built, things I did to it after we moved in, etc. Like, the BIG tree in the front yard was from a seed from a tree in my parent's front yard that my daughter wanted me to plant. I haven't lived there in 25 years but I feel really sentimental for some reason.

[kelroy55]

I saw that on the news. Was anybody hurt?

[u50254082]

I'm curious what they'll find as the cause. The gas pipelines that run to residences are small diameter so it would have taken quite a lot for a home to flat out explode rather than go up in a ball of flames.

The other part is the news keeps saying ONG was there at 3am. Must have been dire circumstances to send guys out in the field at that hour.

[rezman]

Sooner, I saw that report. That's sad indeed. The report kind of came across as if you were still the original owner. I hope the current owner comes out ok.

I was also commenting to my wife that there must have been something serious going on if ONG was out there at 3:00 am. ... It obviously was.

[OkiePoke]

Anytime there is a reported gas leak, ONG will inspect. It doesn't matter if it is a tiny leak or something major. Sounds like this one was a major one. Even though those lines are small, they are high pressure so the volume will be large.

[Bill Robertson]

I saw that on the news. Was anybody hurt?

Unbelievably the occupant was in bed and only received minor burns. I don't see how.

[Bill Robertson]

Sooner, I saw that report. That's sad indeed. The report kind of came across as if you were still the original owner. I hope the current owner comes out ok.

They didn't make it clear that I hadn't owned it for some time. Even though I did. They also said "wife" when I made it clear it was ex-wife. My current wife had a small issue with that. During the interview they were clearly going for an emotional angle.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^
Over the past couple of decades I've done many, many on-camera interviews including live shots and edited stories, and it is a rare exception when TV news gets every detail of a story correct. VERY rare. Usually the gaffes are inconsequential, but it has given me an entirely different perspective on what you see on your screen. It's an incredibly sloppy medium.

Regarding the house, my buddy who lives near NW 63rd and Independence said he was jolted out of bed by the sound of it, and thought it was another earthquake. That is MILES away from the site. Crazy.

[rezman]

This I will never forget. .... When we lived on our acreage and had our house fire back in 2009, I arrived on seen and was told by the fire department blocking the entrance to our addition, that I couldn't drive down our road, due to all of the firefighting equipment , and I had to walk. After running the 1/4 mile to my driveway I started up the hill I found channel 5 already camped out in my front yard, about 200 ft in from the road, camera out and rolling. After hugging and holding my totally distraught wife, and hugging my kids after finding out everyone was ok, here comes little miss reporter and her camera man. She asked me if I'd like to make a comment, to which I replied "not at this time". The reporter lady then looks at my wife who is sitting on the ground sobbing and asks me "do you think your wife feels like to talking to us?" …. I then asked her “does she look like she feels like talking to you?”
A little later, her and her camera man approached me again and asked if I would talk to them. I reluctantly agreed and proceeded to tell her how I was at work when I got a phone call from one of my neighbors that my house was burning, and how I sped home and was thankful to find my wife , and later my kids, were all ok … the house and all our stuff can be replaced … So reporter lady, while being filmed asks me “so you’re the man of the house, taking care of business huh?” … That’s when I went off on her … on camera. Afterwards, the camera man told her that if he was me, he would have been pissed at her too. She later came back up to me and apologized and told me how she grew up without a dad and was “touched” when she saw me hugging and holding my kids. I told her … well, that’s what Dads do.

When the piece aired on the news later on, everything was cut except where I said the main thing is that everyone was ok.

The whole thing with them really rubbed me the wrong way.

[Urbanized]

I could tell you some media horror stories, but still work with them regularly so won't. Like I said, most of times the things they get wrong are innocuous, but it happens enough that I take nearly all TV reporting (especially local) with a grain of salt, unless I know the reporter and can personally vouch for their accuracy. Even then, often an anchor lead-in will contain wrong info.

[ljbab728]

Regarding the house, my buddy who lives near NW 63rd and Independence said he was jolted out of bed by the sound of it, and thought it was another earthquake. That is MILES away from the site. Crazy.

That is interesting. I live much closer than that to the house that exploded and never heard or felt anything.

[SSEiYah]

I live roughly 500 feet away. Didn't do much damage other than loosen the sheetrock on the ceilings in a few rooms.




Powder from texture and sheetrock falling on car in garage:




I rent the house, had the home owner over to take a look, not sure if he is going to submit a claim. ONG did drop off claim forms yesterday. Owner's opinion was it is only a matter of getting some texture touch up and doing some touch up painting, not really worth pursuing a claim.

On the street that it happened I would think each house next to it would be a teardown, beyond that it is hard to tell, seems houses are boarded up across the street as well so I'm sure the extent of the damage.

Ironically enough I had a gas leak on the regulator in the back yard maybe 6 months ago which ONG promptly took care of, as in 30 minutes after calling it in.

I'm a little concerned about why ONG did not shut off the line to the whole neighborhood if the leak was bad enough for neighbors to smell it. I understand its like 25* outside but still. I'm also concerned that maybe the contractor who installed the lines in the neighborhood back in the mid 80s might have done a piss-poor job of putting the lines in.

I certainly feel bad for the poor guy who lived there, the house was just rented out last March. I hope he gets a decent lawyer.

[SSEiYah]

5 houses were razed today on the west side of Whispering Hollow, not sure if the boarded up ones on the east side will have the same fait tomorrow.

Looking Northwest as of late 2015:






3-30-16:






Looking southwest late 2015:





3-30-16:

[rezman]

News reports were saying that at least 12 homes will be demolished.

[Bill Robertson]

WOW! I still can't believe that happened.

[Urbanized]

That is BANANAS.

[u50254082]

Tempted to say that I hope ONG is paying to take care of all of this in as generous a way as possible, but knowing them, they would just pass the cost onto all their customers so I'd indirectly be paying for it...