HUSBAND AND WIFE KILLED IN MIAMI COUNTY, KS FIRE

JUNE 9, 2015

MIAMI COUNTY, KS (KCTV)

The identifications aren't expected until Tuesday, but neighbors fear that a Miami County couple died inside their home Monday morning.

Investigators pulled two bodies from the rubble on Monday. No one has heard from Mike and Sandy Jerden since the fire.

Authorities can't say if the couple was home at the time of the fire.

The first body was found about 1:30 p.m., while the second was found just after 5 p.m. Monday.

This comes after a 911 call was received about 7:45 a.m. Monday by the Miami County Sheriff's Office reporting a structure fire in the 3400 block of West 239th Street. Drivers headed by as late as 7:30 a.m. didn't see anything amiss.

Units responded from Louisburg Fire Department, Paola Fire Department, Johnson County Fire District No.2, Miami County EMS and the Miami County Sheriff's Office.

The first arriving units arrived found fire in two buildings and one vehicle involved. The buildings were engulfed in flames. 

Jim Gast desperately tried to save the two inside the burning home. He saw their vehicles outside.

"I just knew that they were probably inside," he recalled.

Gast and another neighbor tried to force the locked back door open.

"We did kick the door in, and we couldn't get in any further because of the flames and the smoke," Gast said. "There was nothing we could do."

He said he felt so helpless, knowing he wanted to help but didn't have the equipment to do so.

Once volunteer firefighters arrived, they helped with the hoses.

The couple has lived in the home for more than a decade. Mike Jerden, who served in the Marines, was known as an excellent drywall man. His friendly wife was well-regarded at a grocery store in Stanley.

"They were good friends, and we hate this to happen to neighbors out here," Gast said.

The Miami County undersheriff said he expects investigators to be on the scene Tuesday as they work to determine a cause.

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June 9, 2015

MIAMI COUNTY, MO (KCTV)

The smiles were more forced Tuesday at the subdued Price Chopper at 151st Street and Metcalf Avenue.

While official confirmation still waits, Sandy Jerden's co-workers believe she and her husband, Mike, were killed in a fire that consumed their home early Monday. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble and identities were expected to be completed on Tuesday, which would allow authorities to notify next of kin.

Authorities are also examining the rubble of the house and the adjacent barn to determine what started the fire.

So many friends and co-workers have called Sandy Jerden's cell phone that the voicemail is now full.

Cheryl Keller, human resource manager for the Price Chopper store where she worked, said everyone is devastated, saying Sandy Jerden was beloved by her co-workers and customers.

"There were no strangers to her, only new friends," Keller said.

Deli manager Brett Evans concurred.

"She knew everybody who walked through and if she didn't know them then she made a point to know them," Evans said.

Sandy Jerden was off Monday. She was exchanging thoughts with a friend via Facebook at 6:42 a.m. Monday. Everything seemed OK with Sandy Jerden joking.

At 7:49 a.m., those in the area seeing the flames and smoke called 911. Neighbors tried to force their way into the home but the smoke was too thick and the flames raged out of control.

A frantic phone call was made to the Price Chopper.

"A neighbor called here looking for her to let her know her house was on fire and we let them know she was not working (Monday) so then we call tried calling and leaving messages," Keller said. "Sandy will be missed by many."

MAN GETS 9 YEARS FOR DEADLY 2013 BELLEVUE, WA HASH-OIL EXPLOSION

JUNE 8, 2015

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

A man who joined two tech workers in running a hash oil operation that exploded in 2013, destroying a Bellevue apartment building and leading to the death of a former mayor, was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday.

Prosecutors say butane gas used to make the hash oil exploded in the Hampton Greens Apartments on Nov. 5, 2013. Several people were injured trying to escape the fire.

One of them was Nan Campbell, an 87-year-old former Bellevue councilwoman and the city's first female mayor. She was sleeping in another unit when the explosion happened.

"It was terrifying to see that and think about what our mother must have been going through trying to escape from the building and what the other people had to go through trying to get out," said daughter Patty Campbell.

Nan Campbell tripped as she escaped the flames, broke her pelvis and died of complications from the injuries two weeks later.

Two more residents were left with broken bones after they had to jump from their apartments. One of them told the court in a letter that she is still in pain and will never be able to run or play soccer again.

On Monday David Richard Schultz II, 33, the man responsible for causing all of that human misery, appealed for mercy in Federal Court.

Schultz admits he'd been teaching two men to extract hash oil from marijuana in the apartment that blew up. He said he regrets what happened but was desperate to support his twin sons.

"I'm sure he's sorry, it doesn't bring back our mother," said Patty Campbell.

Nor does it explain why Schultz continued his illegal enterprise in California before being caught.

"You have burns, you're hurt, you've blown up and apartment and then you're going to California and doing the same thing. It's like he didn't learn," said Ann Campbell Spangler, Nan Campbell's other daughter.

U.S. District Judge James Robart hopes Schultz will learn during nine years in federal lock-up because Nan Campbell couldn't beat her final opponent.

"There were too many internal injuries… just too much for an 87-year-old to take," said Patty Campbell.

Federal prosecutors and Judge Robart used the sentencing of Schultz as an opportunity to remind people that Washington state's marijuana legalization does not permit all marijuana-related activities.

"We need to educate the public that the legalization of marijuana in the state of Washington is not unlimited and it does not include the manufacturing of homemade hash oil," said Robart.

Prosecutors say they have charged a dozen people with illegally manufacturing butane hash oil in the past year. They compare hash oil operations to meth labs.

"Among other things, they involve the unauthorized use of dangerous solvents, and especially when located in homes and apartment buildings, pose a serious risk of death and property damage as so disastrously happened in this case," said Annette Hayes, U.S. Attorney.

Prosecutors say Daniel James Strycharske, 29, and Jesse D. Kaplan, 32, rented the apartment and allowed Schultz to set up the equipment with the goal of selling the hash oil. They will be sentenced next month.

All three men involved were also injured in the explosion.

Source: http://www.king5.com

3 INJURED IN JET SKI EXPLOSION AT KELLY'S KAWASAKI IN MESA, ARIZONA

JUNE 9, 2015

MESA, ARIZONA

An employee and two customers were injured when a Jet Ski exploded at a Mesa dealership on Tuesday morning, according to the Mesa Fire Department.

Firefighters and paramedics from Mesa and Gilbert were called to Kelly's Kawasaki near Eighth Avenue and Country Club Drive just after 10 a.m.

Deputy Chief Forrest Smith, a Mesa fire spokesman, said firefighters treated three males at the scene -- an employee and a customer, both in their 40s, and the customer's 16-year-old son.

Smith said all the injuries involved shrapnel from the explosion, and the most serious injuries also involved burns.

All three patients were taken to hospitals, where two were in stable-but-critical condition Tuesday afternoon and one had minor wounds, Smith said.

Investigators were still trying to determine what caused the explosion.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com

Con Edison of New York Largely Liable in Deadly East Harlem Explosion, Regulators Find

JUNE 9, 2015

Devorah Schiller of the Bronx took a photograph of the scene of the explosion in March 2014 as firefighters extinguished flames and cleared debris. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

WASHINGTON, DC

Federal regulators on Tuesday found Consolidated Edison to be largely responsible for the explosion of natural gas that destroyed two apartment buildings in East Harlem last year and killed eight people.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates gas explosions, pipeline ruptures, plane crashes and other disasters, decided that the primary cause of the blast on March 12, 2014, was a faulty connection between two of Con Edison’s plastic gas pipes under Park Avenue. The fusion of the two pipes failed, allowing gas to escape into the ground and migrate into one of the buildings, where it became concentrated enough to combust, the safety board found.

The safety board’s staff also concluded that rescue crews could have arrived at the scene and begun evacuating the block about 15 minutes before the 9:30 a.m. blast if the utility had alerted the New York Fire Department right away. A neighborhood resident called the utility at about 9:06 a.m., saying he smelled gas inside and outside his apartment building, they said.

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday presented their findings from an investigation into the East Harlem gas explosion. Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Con Ed did call the Fire Department about 13 minutes later, but then withdrew the call before the department sent any crews, the safety board’s staff found. They quoted a Con Ed dispatcher on the phone with the department, saying: “Hold up. No, sorry. Hold on. Hold on. I’ll call you right back.”

Eleven minutes later, the explosion rocked the entire block, damaging buildings on both sides of Park Avenue, leaving more than 100 families homeless and disrupting train service on the Metro-North Railroad tracks above Park until late in the day.

The safety board also faulted the city’s Department of Environmental Protection for neglecting for at least eight years to repair a gaping hole in a sewer main in front of the buildings that were destroyed in the blast. Con Edison officials have pointed to the erosion caused by that broken sewer main as a contributing factor in the explosion. City officials have disputed that contention.

Just days before the safety board took up the cause of the explosion in Harlem, Con Edison filed suit against the city, blaming the city’s failure to maintain the sewer and water mains near its gas pipes. In the suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the company contended that the city’s Transportation Department had repeatedly been notified of depressions in the pavement of Park Avenue that indicated the earth beneath the surface was eroding.

The utility is seeking to have the city shoulder the liability in lawsuits filed by victims of the explosion and their families.

The hearing was the first public airing of the safety board’s findings from an investigation that took more than a year. The board’s investigators were at the scene within a day of the blast, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.

The safety board is best known for investigating crashes of planes, trains and long-haul trucks. But it also oversees gas pipelines and, technically speaking, Con Edison’s gas mains under the city’s streets fit that bill. The heavy toll of the explosion in Harlem drew the safety board’s attention.

The main that ran under the block of Park Avenue where the blast occurred was made of cast iron and had been installed more than 120 years ago. Iron pipes of that vintage are prone to springing leaks, but documents the safety board released this year indicated that the source of the trouble may have been newer plastic pipes that had been connected to the old main.

Con Edison replaced a 69-foot section of the cast-iron main with plastic pipe in 2011. The utility used a small plastic pipe to connect that new section to a building at 1642 Park Avenue.

One of the documents released said investigators had injected traceable gas into the main to locate any leaks. They found high concentrations of the gas had escaped into the ground in front of 1642 Park at a point where the main was new plastic, not part of the old iron pipe, according to the document. They also found that the smaller pipe, known as a service line, had separated from the main. While 1642 Park survived the explosion, two neighboring buildings — at 1644 and 1646 Park, near 116th Street — were destroyed.

During the investigation, the safety board determined that the foreman who oversaw Con Edison’s installation of the plastic section of the main had not kept his qualifications to do that work up-to-date. State regulators later found that 70 percent of Con Edison’s pipe fitters had not kept their qualifications current. The company said it would retrain all of the workers who install and maintain its network of gas mains.

ANOTHER MAJOR ACCIDENT AT A CONSTRUCTION ZONE: SEMI-TRUCK RECKLESSLY CRASHES, SPILLING FUEL AND CLOSING I-75 NORTH FOR HOURS IN OHIO

JUNE 9, 2015

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO

Northbound I-75 was closed for about four hours Monday and southbound traffic also was disrupted after a tractor-trailer crash north of Bowling Green dislodged barrier wall in a construction zone and spilled fuel.

The semi driven by James Murphy, 47, of Overland, Mo., was northbound approaching State Rt. 582 about 10:35 a.m. today when it went out of control, struck a concrete barrier on the roadway’s left side, caromed back across traffic and hit a barrier on the right side, then hit the left-side wall a second time, troopers at the patrol’s Bowling Green post said.

The impacts knocked the barrier wall out of alignment, partially blocking the southbound lanes while the northbound lanes remained closed until spilled diesel fuel from the truck was cleaned up. All lanes reopened around 2:30 p.m., according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Mr. Murphy suffered minor injuries and was taken to Wood County Hospital for treatment, troopers said. Intoxication is not suspected as a factor in the crash.