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Barbara Hughes was not at home on Saturday night when an explosion rocked her neighborhood in the 400 block of South 15th Street on Saturday evening. But Hughes' husband, Jim, was at home at the time of the blast.
The pair live just a couple houses south of the home that was completely destroyed by the blast, and their home received plenty of damage. Two more homes were destroyed by the fire that followed the explosion.
"We're at the very end of the dead end on South 15th,'' Barbara Hughes said. "We've got debris in the yard from all of it.
"My husband was in the kitchen and it literally threw him to the floor. The back door was blown off of its hinges, and everything in the cabinets came out. We also had a lot off things fall off of the walls."
Hughes said that her insurance company was taking pictures of the damage on Sunday, and that construction workers were coming to the home on Monday to assess the damage and see if their was any structural damage.
"We're staying with our son (Todd) until we get everything assessed,'' Hughes said. "We don't think the house is off the foundation. But we're worried about the roof and the north wall. There are cracks in the living room. There's definite damage to those walls. We just don't know how much. We had a new roof put on last year, and it's very saggy in areas."
Hughes said the blast was so powerful that is left insulation in her hallway.
"In the hallway there is a way to get into the attic,'' she said. "I guess the pressure blew that door right off and there was insulation falling into the hallway."
Hughes was working at the Optical Department at Sears in Marion when she got a call from her husband following the explosion.
"He called me and he was very shaky. I could tell that,'' Hughes said. "He said I would not believe what just happened. He told me and I told him to get out of there."
Hughes said that she and her husband were allowed into their home to retrieve some clothes and medications they needed, then they headed to their sons house.
"We feel blessed,'' Barbara Hughes said. "No one was seriously hurt. I don't mean to sound materialistic, but there are a lot of things that are damaged that we collected over the years that become to dear to you. They are tore up. But things can be replaced.
"I'm almost relieved I was not there. I hated for Jim to be alone, but in the same breath I don't know how I would have reacted."
Mike Jones, the executive director of the John A. Logan Museum, was at his upstairs desk at the museum, which sits about a block-and-a-half to two blocks away from the sight of the blast, when the explosion occurred.
"I was sitting there working on the exhibit for the Apple Festival,'' Jones said. "But I lost my focus after that.
"It was very loud. It seemed like, and I don't know if it did or not, it lifted my chair up. It shook this building enough to make me wonder what it was."
Jones said he looked outside to see what happened, but never looked behind the museum. But it wasn't much longer before he got a call and knew what had taken place.
"I have never experienced something like that,'' Jones said. "I just think we're lucky to have not had anybody killed."
While the museum sustained no damage, Blaine and Rachel Malcolm Ensor's home about a block from the blast had some broken windows.
Malcolm Ensor was at home at the time of the explosion.
"There was a huge boom,'' she said. "It shook the house and broke some windows. It scared the bejeezus out of me."
Barbara Hughes was not at home on Saturday night when an explosion rocked her neighborhood in the 400 block of South 15th Street on Saturday evening. But Hughes' husband, Jim, was at home at the time of the blast.
The pair live just a couple houses south of the home that was completely destroyed by the blast, and their home received plenty of damage. Two more homes were destroyed by the fire that followed the explosion.
"We're at the very end of the dead end on South 15th,'' Barbara Hughes said. "We've got debris in the yard from all of it.
"My husband was in the kitchen and it literally threw him to the floor. The back door was blown off of its hinges, and everything in the cabinets came out. We also had a lot off things fall off of the walls."
Hughes said that her insurance company was taking pictures of the damage on Sunday, and that construction workers were coming to the home on Monday to assess the damage and see if their was any structural damage.
"We're staying with our son (Todd) until we get everything assessed,'' Hughes said. "We don't think the house is off the foundation. But we're worried about the roof and the north wall. There are cracks in the living room. There's definite damage to those walls. We just don't know how much. We had a new roof put on last year, and it's very saggy in areas."
Hughes said the blast was so powerful that is left insulation in her hallway.
"In the hallway there is a way to get into the attic,'' she said. "I guess the pressure blew that door right off and there was insulation falling into the hallway."
Hughes was working at the Optical Department at Sears in Marion when she got a call from her husband following the explosion.
"He called me and he was very shaky. I could tell that,'' Hughes said. "He said I would not believe what just happened. He told me and I told him to get out of there."
Hughes said that she and her husband were allowed into their home to retrieve some clothes and medications they needed, then they headed to their sons house.
"We feel blessed,'' Barbara Hughes said. "No one was seriously hurt. I don't mean to sound materialistic, but there are a lot of things that are damaged that we collected over the years that become to dear to you. They are tore up. But things can be replaced.
"I'm almost relieved I was not there. I hated for Jim to be alone, but in the same breath I don't know how I would have reacted."
Mike Jones, the executive director of the John A. Logan Museum, was at his upstairs desk at the museum, which sits about a block-and-a-half to two blocks away from the sight of the blast, when the explosion occurred.
"I was sitting there working on the exhibit for the Apple Festival,'' Jones said. "But I lost my focus after that.
"It was very loud. It seemed like, and I don't know if it did or not, it lifted my chair up. It shook this building enough to make me wonder what it was."
Jones said he looked outside to see what happened, but never looked behind the museum. But it wasn't much longer before he got a call and knew what had taken place.
"I have never experienced something like that,'' Jones said. "I just think we're lucky to have not had anybody killed."
While the museum sustained no damage, Blaine and Rachel Malcolm Ensor's home about a block from the blast had some broken windows.
Malcolm Ensor was at home at the time of the explosion.
"There was a huge boom,'' she said. "It shook the house and broke some windows. It scared the bejeezus out of me."
