As this woman on the the iReport says, she is watching the fire and that is what it looks like from San Juan, PR...that is what I see when I look out my window from the tenth floor of my building! The actual explosion and fire took place Friday night around 12:30am in Bayamon, PR. Bayamon, PR is pretty close to San Juan as you can see on the map below.
So, late Thursday night, or Friday morning around 12:30am, as my friends and I were walking back into the dorm we heard an explosion, that sounded like a very loud thunder, but it felt like something much worse. The ground all the way where we were, in Rio Piedras, San Juan shook. In fact, an article from Straits Times said, "Authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the blast, which created a 2.8 magnitude jolt on the Richter scale, according to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network. "
This jolt was caused by the initial explosion of at least one of the tanks at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility, which sent a total of 15 of the 40 tanks at the facility into a raging fire. Although no one was seriously injured from the explosion, residents nearby to miles away were alarmed when they were woken up by this explosion and their windows being blown out and shattered to pieces because of it.
Still, last night, 24 hours later, I looked out my window and the fire looks nearly the same.
The firefighters are doing everything they can to at least just keep the fire contained. Governor Fortuno reported yesterday that they are doing everything they can to keep it from spreading to the San Juan bay and have already taken serious precautions as well. The Caribbean Petroleum Corp. apparently has a history of spills, so it is a good thing this one has not contaminated the water so far.One thing making it hard for these firefighters to zap the fire out is, " a 4-inch pipe from a lagoon on the complex was broken, preventing firefighters from using 2 million gallons of water from the lake to battle the blaze. About 150 area firefighters and 215 National Guard personnel were battling to keep the blaze from spreading."
The FBI is looking into whether this explosion was accidental or deliberate. Although they can not make any assumptions just yet, an article posted last night on CNN.com says that they are investigating graffiti on two San Juan tunnels with painted messages such as "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF."
For now, I just pray that they can get battle this fire without anyone getting seriously hurt.
To read the full article I read from CNN.com here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/23/puerto.rico.explosion/index.html
