• explosion Allentown, Pa. was rocked by a violent explosion at 11 p.m. EST last night, killing at least one and burning eight rowhouses. Five people remain missing.
• explanation? Authorities in Allentown have claimed that the explosion has the “look” and “feel” of a natural gas incident, despite the local gas line passing checks last Tuesday. source

• » Sleeping through the wake-up calls: Creaky gas lines leading to violent, deadly explosions have been more common than we’d like lately. You may recall last year’s colossal blast in San Bruno, California, for example, which killed eight people and raised a lot of concern over the state of gas lines nationwide. 2010 was a bad year for gas explosions, as this list attests, and it begs asking whether the U.S. government is shirking their responsibilities on infrastructure safety. In a world in which we’re constantly reminded and warned about very grand-scale, existential threats like global terrorism and the blight of nuclear weapons, the possibility that the ground is going to suddenly explode underneath us seems to get short shrift. With the Obama administration appearing to cede to a Republican-ish center on fiscal matters, odds are the concerted focus and infrastructure spending needed to answer these questions simply won’t be there. Which sucks, frankly.

Posted by Chris Tognotti • Permalink