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From: stiambeng626@yahoo.com (stiambeng626@yahoo.com)

To: stiambeng626@yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 4:05:07 PM
Subject: dallasnews.com article from Sarah

Sarah [stiambeng626@yahoo.com] has sent you an article from dallasnews.com.

Story: Dallas workers watched explosion drama unfold

Dallas workers watched explosion drama

unfold
01:49 AM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007

By DAVID FLICK and SARAH TIAMBENG / The Dallas Morning News

dflick@dallasnews.com, stiambeng@dallasnews.com

It's hard to get much work done when the walls of your building are rattling.

Many employees at downtown banks and law firms were jolted from their desks Wednesday morning by the
shockwaves generated from the gas-tank explosions at Southwest Industrial Gases on Industrial Boulevard.

Productivity plunged as they watched the drama unfold outside their windows and on office televisions.

"We weren't getting too much done when everyone was watching cylinders shooting into the sky," said John
Peeler, an accountant with Jackson Walker on the 61st floor of Bank of America Plaza.

"We were watching them come down on the roads right by the fire. All the windows were full on the west
side."

Jesse Shumway, a lawyer with Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, said he felt sound waves hitting
the walls of his office on the 55th floor of the Bank of America Plaza.

"First, I thought it was the window washer banging outside," he said. "We all saw big fireballs being shot
great distances."

John Chapman, one of Mr. Shumway's colleagues, described it this way:

"It was like CNN was filming from our office."

Tacos? Not today

Closer to the fire, curiosity was mixed with worry.

"It was pretty scary," said Alex Benda, 18, a cashier at the nearby Fuel City gas station on Industrial. "The
whole building was rattling and the windows were shaking.

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"We didn't know if stuff would explode underground, because we have enormous gas tanks here."

Fuel City, known for keeping a herd of livestock in a small urban pasture behind the gas station, suffered no
animal casualties. A tank, 3 ½ feet long and as big around as a basketball, fell in the grass a few feet from the
station's parking lot.

But the station's seven longhorns and two donkeys were unfazed, lounging lazily near their trough.

"As far as we know, no one got barbecued," Ms. Benda said.

However, the station's taco stand, recently voted the best in the state by Texas Monthly, was shut down.

Police asked the stand's employees to evacuate.

"They probably regret that decision, because now they want tacos," Ms. Benda said just before another
rescue official came in to ask whether the stand was open.

'Looked like snow'

Tony Songvilay ran outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel when he heard the explosions.

"We were in here working when the building started shaking and we saw the debris falling," he said. "At first
we thought it was demolition, because we couldn't see anything."

A few blocks to the north, Chris Yaregas, 18, was in the West End with friends when he heard the
explosions. He came to a different conclusion, perhaps brought on by international events.

"The first thing we thought," he said, "was that it was a terrorist attack."

Chris and friends returned to the Hyatt and went to the 20th floor.

"We saw ashes falling down," he said. "They looked like snow."

Familiar scene

The fire was the second major industrial blaze in as many months in the area immediately south of downtown
-- a thought that occurred to Dallas City Council member Steve Salazar.

Mr. Salazar witnessed the explosions while driving to the Dallas County Courthouse, watching as a fine layer
of ash covered the intersection of Industrial Boulevard and Continental Avenue.

One of his first thoughts: the Trinity River Corridor Project.

He recalled that exactly one month before Wednesday's fire, a five-alarm blaze destroyed a 400,000-
square-foot warehouse in the 300 block of Cadiz Street.

"We need to let the fire department look at why this is occurring there in that area," he said.

"With this being so close to the Trinity project, we may want to make sure that in the future, we don't allow
the presence of these types of chemicals in the area."

Humans evacuate SPCA site

Humans and animals came through the ordeal in good shape at the SPCA of Texas' Dealey Animal Care

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Shelter.

Moments after the explosions, employees evacuated the building, gathering up animals that had been
recovering from surgery.

Most employees were sent home and all were offered counseling, said Maura Davies, a spokeswoman for the
shelter.

A few employees were later allowed back in the building to check on the animals left behind.

On the SPCA Web site, officials assured pet owners that they would contact anyone whose animal was in
the clinic and tell them how to pick up their pets.

Guard dogs may have died

Supervisor Randall Lassiter wasn't so hopeful about the animals at Southwest Industrial Gases.

He feared that three of the facility's guard dogs -- two Dobermans and a pit bull -- had died in the explosions.

"I tried to get to them. ... We couldn't get them out," Mr. Lassiter said.

"The guy that works midnights, he loves them dogs."

Staff writers Steve Thompson, Dave Levinthal, Michelle Saunders, Michael J. Mooney, Suzanne Marta,
Angela Shah and Vasanth Sridharan contributed to this report.

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