A bulldozer cleans up debris after a gas explosion destroyed a building in the Northwest part of Portland.
Rob Manning / OPB
A Portland fire bureau lieutenant suffered two broken legs after being thrown by the force of Wednesday's natural gas explosion.
Lying in a hospital bed Thursday, Lt. Peter St. John said he had just evacuated a number of building occupants and was standing in the middle of NW Glisan St., when he saw the building blow.
"[I] saw the explosion from the basement all the way to the third floor," St. John said. "It was just each level went off, pretty much simultaneously.”
Then St. John felt the blast.
Lt. Peter St. John of Portland Fire and Rescue.
Courtesy of KPTV
“I must’ve blacked out, for a little bit because the next thing I knew I was on the ground," St. John recalled. "I felt the heat wave knock me back, and then I was on the ground.”
St. John's chief, Mike Myers, said he was on his way to a meeting in Salem when he learned of the explosion. Myers said he turned around immediately and headed to the blast site.
Eight people were injured, including St. John and two other firefighters, as well as two police officers. Myers recalled fearing the worst as he walked up.
“It was just a person on a gurney, it was covered with blood," Myers said. "And I asked, ‘Is that one of ours?’ And he said, ‘Yes, that’s one of ours.’ And it struck me at that moment, this is serious.”
St. John said the blast hurled him across NW Glisan. When he regained his bearings his legs were in pain. He quickly received treatment from the paramedic on his fire truck, and soon heard accounts of what had happened.
“I guess I got thrown across the street. I’m not sure how far I flew but some people say — it’s been a range of between 10 and 20 feet as about how far I got thrown," said St. John. "And yeah, I was tied up in a chain link fence and was on the ground.”
St. John said before the explosion, he and workers with the gas utility, Northwest Natural, had found the leak outside the building. He says utility workers were preparing to cap the leak when the building blew up.
Northwest Natural said Loy Clark’s Electrical Division was working underground when the crew hit a 1-inch coated gas pipe. The company had learned of the gas line from Northwest Natural on Sept. 13, the utility said.
Several blocks remain closed on Northwest 23rd Avenue as fire investigators look through the rubble.
Myers and other fire officials credit St. John with saving lives, as one of 100 firefighters scrambling with the help of utility workers to evacuate a handful of buildings along the busy stretch of road. Residents and local workers escaped just before the natural gas explosion flattened one building and did significant damage to several more.
Fire officials offered no estimate for when the investigation would be finished, or when several closed blocks of Northwest 23rd Avenue would re-open.
Myers wouldn’t say what investigators are finding.
“As with any investigation, I can’t comment on those things, only to tell you, as you can witness, it’s a long, tedious, picking-through process. And they’ve got to get everything right, and it’s about attention to detail," Myers said. "They’re picking through each piece of lumber, digging, analyzing, and taking their time. It just takes time.”
Northwest Natural said Thursday that officials were attempting to contact and visit all 118 customers who lost their gas service in the explosion. Utility spokeswoman Melissa Moore said many of those customers will likely get their service returned right away.
But Northwest Natural was paying for hotel rooms, for customers affected by the explosion.
