5 Injured In Montgomery County Explosion

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this part of Texas has been impacted by a summer of drought and high summer temperatures (up to 117 degrees Fareheit this summer), now rain. Our soil base is gumbo clay....there have been innumberable water pipe problems. this may be related... Fair use, etc http://www.click2houston.com/hou/news/stories/news-20010115-071239.html "5 Injured In Montgomery County Explosion Explosion Rocks Several Neighborhoods HOUSTON, Updated 1:31 p.m. CST January 15, 2001 -- Five people were injured after a house exploded Monday morning and scattered debris all over a wooded area in Montgomery County. The explosion happened shortly before 6 a.m. at the intersection of Country Lane and Lark Lane near the small town of Shenandoah, Texas. NewsChopper2, hovering over the scene, reported that several fire units had reported to the scene of the explosion. Fire investigators told News2Houston that the five people injured lived in a home next to the one that exploded. The five were treated at the scene for minor cuts and bruises, authorities said. "We thought our house blew up and we started digging our way out and got outside," Paul Griffin, one of the neighbors injured, said. "The doors were blown off the hinges." Toby Mendoza owns the house that exploded, but was not at home at the time of the accident. Mendoza said that he uses it as a weekend home and for the past two years he had been renovating it. "This is something terrible," Mendoza said. "All this work that I had done on it." The preliminary cause of the explosion is believed to be a propane gas leak, investigators said. "We did find some evidence of a leaking space heater that was still connected up to the gas supply," Montgomery County Fire Marshal investigator Jimmy Williams, Montgomery said. "There was also a gas stove that may have contributed to the gas in the residence." Several people called News2Houston and e-mailed Click2Houston.com that they had felt the explosion in their neighborhoods from as far away as San Jacinto County..."

-- tex (tex@tex.com), January 15, 2001

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