Well it's been on all the local news channels this evening, and will likely be in the newspapers tomorrow... but a house exploded into flames on Yale St. [[near 11 Mile/I-94) in St. Clair Shores around 2:15PM Thursday. I know, since my house is only about 400 ft. from the exploding house.

I got home about 20 minutes after the loud explosion, but my neighbors [[who heard the explosion) thought there was a nuclear blast, it was so loud. It was a multi-alarm fire, since trucks were there from Roseville, as well as SCS. They had Channel 2, 4, 7 news trucks parked nearby and 4 hours of traffic gridlock for sightseeing onlookers and street closures.

The only occupant of the house, a 83 year old woman, was turning on her dryer when the explosion occurred. Luckily neighbors got in and rescued her. However she had burns over much of her body, and also broken bones.

The explosion blew all the bricks off the house, as well as tossing furniture out of the exploding windows. The wooden framing of the house and severely sagging roof of the house survive. Ironically neither house on either side of it had much damage... just rubble on their roofs, and building insulation flying at least 200 ft. in all directions.

Neighbors had been complaining for 3 days about the smell of gas, and my neighbors kids said they smelled gas on the way to school this morning. CMS Energy came by, but didn't smell anything, from what I gathered from the neighbors. And then they left without action. Later tragedy struck.

St. Clair Shores is built on a former swamp. I sometimes feel like I'm swimming in an ocean of clay, since many of me and my neighbors have had either our lawns dug up [[sewer pipe or drainage tile replacements), basement walls reinforced due to bowing, or gas lines rupturing [[4 years ago my next door neighbor had their front lawn dug up because we both smelled gas on the front lawn). It's just too bad that this particular situation wasn't resolved in a timely manner.

My neighbor lady is in my prayers, although I don't think [[at her age) that she will recover from her injuries. If infection doesn't get her, pneumonia likely will.