Thursday, March 5, 2009

Explosion Rocks Bozeman


This kind of thing doesn't happen here and shouldn't happen anywhere as far as that goes. . I've been drinking at the Rocking R Bar since before I moved here and the Boodles Restaurant owner and I partied at the Daytona 500 together as well as his joint and wherever we may have run into one another. One person is still missing. As sad as that is, it could have been far worse as there is plenty of traffic, both car and foot, on main street at 8:15 in the morning.
Rumor mill is already telling me that every building on that side of the street (on that block) will have to be knocked down as they are structurally unsound. I know owners of half the businesses on that side of the street. That's because I like to eat and drink.



4 comments:

h said...

I pray this doesn't cause to many problems for the good citizens of Bozeman. The article I read said the gas and water lines in that part of town are 100 years old.

Milk River Madman said...

Chef,

Its a mess underneath the ground. I'm in the construction equipment biz. Two years ago my best customer was installing new water lines on a main artery running perpendiculat to main street. He told me there were so many old lines that were not on the plans that it took them and extra three months to complete the project.

There is a little cafe on the east end of the block. Its where I eat breakfast about once a week. Just recently came under new ownership. One of the waitresses bought it last July. I'm just heartsick for her. The owner of Boodles is more of a drinking aquaitence but the owner of the Rocking R is great guy. Not to mention everyone else who will be out of business for at least a year.

Kymical Reactions said...

Are they aware what caused the explosion? This is horrible, and as an Okie, can definitely relate to blown up buildings and missing people.
This is tragic, and my thoughts and prayers are with the good people of your quaint town.

Milk River Madman said...

Kim,

They are quite sure that it was a gas leak.

I am just shocked at something else I just heard. There is an elementary school less than 300 yards from the site of the explosion. It was not evacuated immediately. It was finally evacuated at 1 PM because there was too much smoke in the school.

Are you shitting me? What if there had been another explosion? What if the fire jumped out of control?

The principal of Hawthorne has some serious questions to answer IMO. And, he got lucky.