[Newz] Bozeman is on fire.
I wish I could say that this image was a war zone, some country we've never heard of and can't pronounce, but it's not. I walked down that sidewalk a lot as a kid, wasting my time during quite a few summers.
Bozeman Montana, my hometown, is on fire. Link #1 there takes you to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's website, and the second to the Billings Gazette, which is where I got this photo.
Around 8 or 8:30 am local time, a gas main exploded at or about 215 E Main Street, centered on the Rocking R Bar. The explosion levelled two to four of the buildings, blew out windows three blocks away, and the concussion was felt at the edge of town. As of 9 am 1 pm, the fire was still active as they were having trouble determining where the break had taken place. A news conference was scheduled for around 10 am to discuss the details; when I have a link I will add that to the entry.
I'd been up all night, and my phone was on silent, but when my dad called I woke right up and it took me a second to figure out what the hell had woken me up when I couldn't hear anything other than some strange buzzing noise. Once I figured out it was my phone I answered and he told me what happened. He's off in Seattle, so he's fine. I told R and my mom, and then tried to get ahold of the people I still have some contact with out there (no luck yet). I left messages and hopefully they'll get back with me. Whatever CNN says about there being no injuries, I'm not quite content until I hear it from them that they're okay.
Nettles is being extra snuggly right now in her own way, demanding many scritches but not wanting to actually sit still for them. She keeps flopping on the bed (I absconded with the laptop upstairs after R went off to work) and looking at me with kittenfase.
I don't particularly want to go back to sleep, but I'll probably have to at some point. I have a bunch of crap I need to do tonight, and I don't want to miss it. All the same, of all the ways I dislike being woken up this rates pretty high on the list.
Edit, 1456 local:
The fire is still burning. They can't shut off the gas lines; the infrastructure is so old that it doesn't actually have a cutoff switch, so the broken gas line is just constantly feeding the fire. The gas company has a suspicion where the problem is originating, and they're having to excavate around the lines so they can try and cut them off. Four businesses are obliterated, and a massive crater formed where a popular and very good restaurant was.
A crater. In the middle of my hometown.
Fire crews are being called in from as far away as Big Sky, forty-one miles and almost an hour away. The age of the buildings is actually helping to contain the fire. Most of them were built before fire departments could get to a fire in a quick fashion, and so the buildings were constructed to contain fires. Even with this in mind, half of the block is still lit up and crews are having trouble getting to the areas they need to.
The governor has arrived in City Hall, and says he'll mobilize the National Guard as soon as it's wanted. They're still saying there are no reported injuries, but 8 something in the morning, on Main Street, on a weekday? I wouldn't be surprised if someone's declared missing soon.
I'm exhausted, upset, and plain old depressed. Downtown Bozeman has always been a very pretty part of town; they've kept up a lot of the architecture and done restoration work to preserve some of the original storefronts. Now, it's likely that a full half block will be completely gone.