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West Carrollton blast damaged neighboring houses

Brian Stevens (left) and Jeff Norfleet (right) survey the damage to Stevens' home on Infirmary Rd. in Moraine Monday May 4. An overnight explosion at the Veolia Environmental Services Plant broke the windows in the front of the home and split the front door jam.

Staff photo by Lisa Powell Brian Stevens (left) and Jeff Norfleet (right) survey the damage to Stevens' home on Infirmary Rd. in Moraine Monday May 4. An overnight explosion at the Veolia Environmental Services Plant broke the windows in the front of the home and split the front door jam.

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Graphic by Ted Pitts View the location of the Veolia Environmental Services plant.

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Steve Brewer of Miamisburg hangs plywood over the broken windows of his parents home on Infirmary Rd. in Moraine Monday May 4. An overnight explosion at the Veolia Environmental Services Plant in West Carrollton caused damage to surrounding homes in the area.

Staff photo by Lisa Powell Steve Brewer of Miamisburg hangs plywood over the broken windows of his parents home on Infirmary Rd. in Moraine Monday May 4. An overnight explosion at the Veolia Environmental Services Plant in West Carrollton caused damage to surrounding homes in the area.

By Katherine Ullmer , James Cummings and Tom Gnau
Staff Writers Updated 3:34 PM Monday, May 4, 2009

WEST CARROLLTON— Brian Stevens and his wife were awakened just after midnight Sunday, May 3, by a huge explosion that “blew six of my windows out, broke both of my door jambs, and knocked in the bottom of the garage door. It was a big explosion. It blew the window frames into the house,” knocked pictures off the wall and “broke a couple of globes off some of the lights,” he said.

Stevens, 52, of 4024 Infirmary Road, lives across a field about 300 yards from the Veolia Environmental Manufacturing factory at 4301 Infirmary Road, where a chemical explosion sent fire and thick smoke up into the air.

Stevens said police put a yellow tape about 50 feet from his home blocking people from going in and out of the area and told him if he left the house to go to work he would not be allowed back in until all the chemical has burned out.

Stevens, an electrician, was scheduled to work on a school in Hamilton on Monday. He stayed home in hopes of getting an insurance adjuster out so he could repair his home, but was told the insurance adjustor would not be let in until the chemical fire has burned out. His step-daughter was not able to go to work either.

“A cop let a buddy of mine in last night to bring in some plywood to board up the windows,” he said. They were told if a decision was made to evacuate that they would all be called at home and notified, he said. He lives north of the factory and the smoke was going south and southwest, he said.

“Hopefully the fire will go out quick,” he said. “A big EPA truck went by about a half hour ago,” he said, shortly before 9 a.m. Monday.

Stevens said he talked with his neighbors, the Brewers, and learned that all of their windows were blown out. Stevens said about two years ago there was an evacuation of the area because of chemical leaks, but “we didn’t leave because it wasn’t mandatory.”

Elsie Brewer, who lives several doors down the street, said she has two sons who live on the road and that all their houses had windows damaged. When the explosion occurred “It almost knocked me out of bed,” she said. “We live right on a curve and at first I thought it might be a car that crashed, but my son looked out the window and said, ‘the chemical plant’s on fire,’” she said. The blast from the explosion knocked some ceiling tiles down, and “the window out in my bedroom and all the window blinds,” she said. She said they were told they didn’t need to evacuate as the smoke was not heading in their direction.

Christine Smith, lives in the Pineview Estates trailer park on Farmersville-West Carollton Pike, about a mile from the explosion.

“It sucked my storm windows out. The windows just flew out,” she said.

Smith also said food fell off the shelves in her kitchen, and pictures fell off the wall.

Smith and other residents of the trailer park said they felt one huge concussion followed by several smaller explosions.

“It was almost like we were in a war zone. We heard explosions all night,” she said.

Dennie Madden said he lives at the back of the trailer park, farthest from the explosion, and at the sound of the blast he ran outside thinking a trailer at the front of the complex had exploded.

“When I got close to the street, I could see flames rolling and rolling up into the air,” said Madden.

He said the flames were about 100 feet high.

Residents of the trailer park said they all gathered by the street and watched the flames.

Patrick Oakes said, “It was so bright out here it was like daylight. It was almost like a party. Everyone’s dogs were going nuts.”

Oaks said it was lucky the explosion happened at night.

“There are a lot of people over there during the day. Semis are coming and going all the time.”

Tim Gaffney, who lives in the area, said the explosion shook his house.

“I saw a black plume of smoke rising north of the city,” Gaffney said. “I didn’t know there was an industrial plant in this area, and I was afraid a big jet had gone down.”It wasn’t long after midnight when Andre Siyahi, 21, found himself climbing fences and crossing corn fields, covered in mud, to get a good view of the explosion.

The shots Siyahi got speak for themselves: Flames shooting past tank silos, clouds billowing into the night sky.

The Miamisburg resident didn’t know what to make of the explosion that happened just after midnight.

“The house shakes, windows start rattling,” Siyahi recalled. “I went outside and thought, ‘I might as well see what it is.’”

He said that he wondered, “Is that a sonic boom?”

Soon, he was on the road, with his Canon G2 camera, following smoke and flames. He knew that with police cruisers blocking roads around the facility at 4301 Infirmary Road, he probably wouldn’t get close.

“I thought, if I want the shot, I’ve got to go to it myself,” he said. He parked his car at a nearby auto body shop and walked through what he called “some corn fields, some farmer’s fields, jumped over barbed wire, some woods.”

“That’s why I’m covered in mud right now,” Siyahi said, almost apologetically, in an interview about nine hours later.

From a spot “right by the fence,” Siyahi said he could feel “the heat from the fire.”

“I think I was (far) enough away,” he said.

He added, “I realized I had to take time on the shots, but not linger — just for my own personal safety.”

He saw no firefighters or workers. At one point, he thought he saw “foam (being sprayed) away from a fire,” but then he said he realized, “That might have been steam coming from a tank.”

“No people, no injuries, maybe some police, some sirens in the distance,” he added.

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