Here's a photo: http://i.imgur.com/y3ROF.jpg

Is this what you're talking about? Found on /r/pics with the title "An aerial shot of the explosion that obliterated two houses in Indianapolis Saturday night."

I'll also add my 2 cents saying that this looks like a strange explosion to me. Something dropped from overhead perhaps? No idea really, but strange nonetheless.

Why does it look strange to you? Have you seen other gas line explosions before? If it looks strange compared to those what about it flags that for you?

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/houses-damaged-gas-explosion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/02/salford-gas-explosion

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/staff/gas-explosion-last-time-bozman/

http://www.glennashley.org/photo_6196746.html

these gas explosions appear to be less "explosive". the one in ohio appears to have completely pulverized two homes.

I meant that the situation was strange, not what the actual explosion looks like.

What do you find strange about a house explosion? They aren't all that uncommon(generally gas leaks).

[deleted]

Although kahirsch below seems to have solved this one, from a local Indianapolis source. Just a furnace explosion it seems...

It made the local CBS news in New York.

what in the actual fuck are you talking about? Its been a major news story on all the networks, in fact it was the first story on ABC and NBC. You need meds. Seriously.

Also, its just a gas leak. Its getting the kid of attention it deserves.

Because it's just a karma ploy to say shit like the OP does.

"Of course the MSM is ignoring this..."

But you google it and you can't even find a MSM source that hasn't covered it. People up vote headlines, not content.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20121112/NEWS/121112012/Ex-husband-suspects-faulty-furnace-led-massive-Indianapolis-explosion

Ex-husband suspects faulty furnace led to massive Indianapolis explosion

The ex-husband of the woman whose house is thought to be at the center of Saturday’s deadly explosion on the city’s Far Southside said he suspects a furnace problem led to the massive blast.

John Shirley, whose ex-wife Monserrate Shirley lives at the home with their 12 year-old-daughter, said he got a text from his daughter about a week-and-a-half ago telling him the heat was out and they were spending the night elsewhere.

“I bet you anything that’s why it happened,” he said.

Shirley said his daughter had told him the heat was back on, but he didn’t know whether or when any repair work had occurred.

Indianapolis Public Safety Director Troy Riggs says investigators suspect natural gas played some role in the blast, but added it’s going to be quite some time before they release a cause of the explosion that killed two people and damaged 80 homes.

Um, I saw it on CNN.

Because two houses blowing up doesn't deserve massive news coverage. It's most likely some kind of accidental explosion, be it gas or chemical.

Edit: What is this massive news coverage supposed to say? We don't know what happened yet, but let's keep showing you pictures of destroyed houses and speculate on it being a drone strike?? If news of the cause comes out, I'm sure it will get a mention in the news media.

Remember this? I bet you don't.

What same treatment? When has a house blowing up ever caused AC360 to show up on scene?

To be fair, it made BBC news as well as all the major US outlets.

I think it would be a bigger deal if more than two houses were destroyed.

Here's the news coverage...

People should really look to see if there is coverage before presuming there's some large conspiracy to cover it up. Sometimes it takes a while for the news to do their job. But if we all calm down, and take a breath it would make this entire subreddit a little less histrionic.

People just up vote yellow journalism, even if it's here. As long as it's a bias/propaganda people agree with, they are okay with it.

A simple Google search shows most of the comments about the "MSM ignoring things" to be wrong - but people aren't going to do that. They're going to assume that the OP is correct and just up vote away.

Not a Meth lab or a bomb according to the news. It looks like a gas leak explosion to me but I am reading that has been ruled out by officials also. A true WTF. I don't see a conspiracy at play yet though. If something was being hidden here why not just use one of the standard explenations.

No, a gas leak has NOT been "ruled out" by officials. They just have not found it yet but say they have much more investigation to do. The gas is shut off, so its not as simple to find leaks as the paranoids around theses parts believe...

In fact on the ground everyone is saying its "most likely" a gas leak. Also, an arson investigation is going on. People died, so this is a serious investigation. And if it WAS arson, they are not going to announce what they know until they exercise their leads.

gas leaks have been ruled out according to news conference.

Nope. Only things officially ruled-out at this point are bomb, plane, and meth lab.

Literally a block away when it happened, so I'm following pretty closely. You are incorrect.

Source? Because you are wrong. Nobody said "ruled out" they said they just cant find it yet and they have more investigation to do. In fact they said they believe it is most likely a gas leak they just have to find it. Its starting to sound like it was a faulty furnace, which would explain why they cant find problems in the gas lines. Why dont any of you handle details?

Stay tuned. ;)

lol, you people crack me up.

a house explodes from a gas leak and you retards are saying it's everything from a drone strike to nuclear testing...

ask anyone who has worked in the nat gas field (like i have) and they will tell you that this is exactly what a 2 story mini mansion filled with gas looks like when it finds a spark.

the damage looks worse than it was initially because the explosion caused fires everywhere on what was left of the house and the neighboring houses.

stick built homes wrapped in plastic (vinyl siding) tend to burn very well, by the time the fire department got there the neighboring houses were completely engulfed in flames.

a bit of reality goes a long way here guys.

the "there is no gas leak" statements from the gas company on scene is referring to no other leaks in the area now that the obliterated houses in question have been isolated from the line (shut off from the street).

the only thing this rules out is an underground line break, which would be the gas companies fault. they are saying this was isolated in the home that blew the fuck up... as in a bad furnace or water heater.

First: I agree with you that it was a gas leak.

Second: There's an art to sharing facts. I would never start a paragraph off with "lol, you people crack me up". I almost stopped reading after that.

Third: Never call people "retards". It's quite unprofessional and doesn't help with getting the facts across. Name calling is meant for youtube or middle schoolers. How is someone suppose to take you seriously? You wouldn't take someone serious that called you a "retard".

Fourth: I'd be curious if you could provide more top down images of houses that have exploded in the past. It would help with comparing the blast radius.

i'm sorry if you were offended at my use of "retard" but when i see someone calling an obvious nat gas explosion a "drone strike" or a nuclear test i just can't help but laugh.

anyway here's the situation...

one exploded house isn't going to look like another because of the nature of gas...

consider this:

if you had two rooms of equal size with a source of gas and a source of ignition

room 1 has the gas and ignition sources close to each other, room 2 has them far apart... this will result in two completely different explosions.

also consider that if the source of ignition is low to the ground, the nat gas will have more time to mix with the air and fill the entire volume before finding the ignition source...

now consider that this was a mini mansion full of multiple rooms and floors that could have filled with gas before finding the ignition source (this is what i think happened based on the reports of the sound and force of the initial explosion)

lets say for the sake of argument that the main floors gas fireplace leaked, and the source of ignition was the pilot light on the water heater or furnace int he basement....

the entire house would have filled with gas before exploding... and that is one hell of an explosion.

natural gas explosions happen all the time a quick google image search of "natural gas house explosion" will yield tons of results. but like i said... the only thing that separates a small explosion and a big explosion is the volume of gas allowed to build up prior to finding the source of ignition.

bottom line is i've been in this business for decades, and this is exactly what a gas explosion looks like. in most cases, if the fire department gets there quick enough, you'll still see most of the roof, because the force of the explosion tends to radiate outward and roll flat over the ground. this is why so many neighboring houses were shifted from their foundations, and why the garage doors on the other block were blown off their tracks.

that pressure wave raped that neighborhood, i'm shocked more people weren't killed, this was a massive explosion.

That was an awesome explanation. Thank you for that! Hopefully more people found that helpful as well. After checking out other pics on Google images of natural gas explosions, I see the similarities. Kudos to you.

thanks for good feedback.

i want to jump in ahead of time here and counter the two most obvious rebuttals to my explanation...

"safety features on the furnace/fireplace/water tank should prevent that much gas to leak"

a break in the line, or a worker not sealing the line properly before charging the line again, would allow endless amounts of gas to leak into the house.

also older furnaces are often "rigged" by homeowners or shady repair guys to fix something by bypassing clogged or broken safety features.

"someone would have smelled it"

the homeowner has already said that the furnace was being repaired in the last week, and the family had been staying at a hotel until the heat worked. nobody was in the house at the time of the explosion, it was night, so most people were sleeping and wouldn't have been outside to smell the building gas in the house.

Redditor for 18 days. And you're already spewing disinfo. This blast was far more destructive than a gas explosion would be. The negative pressure wave damage to the surrounding homes is evidence enough that it was not a gas (subsonic) explosion.

http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/

yeah ok buddy, lol.

as i said above, when you design homes to withstand vertical roof load, the weak point is going to be the walls. in most cases, especially with 2 story homes, the result of a house gas explosion is a near perfect roof (minus a few shingles) atop a pile of toothpicks. the reason you don't see the roof in this explosion was the response time of the fire trucks. by the time the fire trucks showed up the roof was on fire along with both neighboring houses.

this is why the force of the explosion radiates outward in more of a ring than a dome.

go watch some 55 gal oxy-acetylene bag vids on youtube and tell me that won't blow the windows out of a house, now multiply that by a very large number to equal the volume of a house.

no nat gas isn't as powerful as oxy-actyl is, but it gives you a good idea of what a fuel/air explosion is capable of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU4-S1ViZeA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt3AV9uO0_Q

i have a strong suspicion that you have never witnessed a true confined gas/air explosion. with any sort of back pressure (walls of a house) you convert that fireball into a huge slamming explosion. once you are armed with the personal knowledge of how dangerous that situation is you can't look at those pics and not see that it was a nat gas explosion.

the difference between a skeptic and a nutjob is the ability to stop clinging onto delusions when presented with sound reason.

in other words, "you gotta know when hold em, and you gotta know when to fold em"...

trust me... fold.

You just wrote a whole lot of nothing completely besides the point im making. I'm not denying a gas explosion couldn't blow the house to pieces, im talking about the exterior damage TO OTHER BUILDINGS being considerably more than your usual "gas explosion in the house" scenario.

Did you even look at the link I posted?

FTA:

"I have received requests to explain the following photo better. When I mention the decompression damage, this is what I am trying to say. If you have a detonation from a military grade explosive, rather than a natural gas explosion, the shock wave that goes out from the blast is supersonic and forms a wall of bunched up compressed air as it moves outward. This creates a vacuum cavity in the heart of the detonation, which can go outward for several hundred feet. Air needs to rush backwards to fill that void after the blast wave has passed, and this creates an enormous suction after the intital blast that can cause significant damage in addition to the initial blast damage. So the arrows are pointing at windows, garage doors, and exterior walls of houses that got sucked off by this negative pressure wave. The fact that the houses I refer to had the external sheathing ripped outward, instead of being blown inward, proves that this was no gas explosion, which is subsonic, it was a detonation of military grade ordinance. Explosions are subsonic, detonations are supersonic, and detonations will cause the reverse pressure wave following the blast. Subsonic explosions will not. This is what I am referring to in the high res photo."

http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/bombblast.jpg

The garage door in the far upper right side of the photo is pretty damning evidence in particular of a reverse pressure wave.

Also, theres this:

"This was a much bigger blast than is being stated in the press, with eyewitnesses saying that 8 miles away it sounded like lightning hitting their homes, a recording being made at the time six miles away clearly recorded the blast, and it is not an explosion, it sounds like a detonation. Military veterans are saying it sounded exactly like military ordinance, and people two miles away from the blast say it was so loud they thought a bomb went off within their own yards. The blast effects in the high resolution photo indicate that not only was there a strong compression wave, but there was also a very strong subsequent decompression wave, with homes not badly damaged having their windows sucked out and not blown in, even while facing the direction of the blast. This effect is also visible on several garage doors."

TLDR

the point you are missing is that a nat gas explosion can (and often does) produce these exact same results.

this wasn't "a typical house/gas explosion" because this wasn't a typical sized house. the bigger the house, the bigger the boom, your theory and your wackadoo source are worthless.

So, my 3 paragraph reply was "too long" so you "didnt read".

the point you are missing is that a nat gas explosion can (and often does) produce these exact same results.

No, it doesn't. The destruction to the house itself and the one(s) immediately next door may be comparable, but a natural gas explosion would not create a reverse pressure wave, as natural gas explosions are subsonic. In other words, if it were a natural gas explosion, the damage to buildings 2 houses away and across the street would be almost nonexistent, instead we have windows being blown OUTWARDS, which is a sign of a reverse pressure supersonic wave, typical of military ordinance.

this wasn't "a typical house/gas explosion" because this wasn't a typical sized house. the bigger the house, the bigger the boom, your theory and your wackadoo source are worthless.

A bigger house may create a bigger boom, but it still doesn't up the explosion velocity to supersonic. That's physics for ya.

no i just stopped reading your ramblings after you started in with the same bullshit from before...

where some guy speculates on how powerful an explosion was that he didn't witness.

you have no idea what you are talking about. just because some link on some conspiracy website uses words you've never heard before (reverse pressure wave, or subsonic) doesn't make them right.

if you confine any fuel air bomb it will absolutely create this type of destruction. also it's very clearly not "reverse pressure" when bits of the house and the surrounding houses were blown away from the explosion.

a very large volume of nat gas mixed with oxygen in any sort of confinement (a house) will indeed cause a "supersonic" explosion.

i can create a supersonic explosion with common 70/30 flash powder... you don't need "military ordinance" to create a shockwave.

this whole theory of yours is not holding water at all.

Alcorr does seen to have a point with the windows and garage doors being sucked out.

Interesting note, though anything said here is PURE SPECULATION.

The woman who owns the home is a friend of a friend of a friend kinda deal, and there are some interesting bits about her on the night of the explosion.

She was staying at a casino. Her daughter was staying at a friends house. Her pets were ALL at the groomers overnight.

The house has been on the market for years. Won't speculate myself but take that for what you will.

what a liar, you dont know them, you read that in the paper like everyone else. yeah it sounds like insurance fraud and murder...

Yes, you're totally right.

The fact that I was in the neighborhood the night of the explosion, posted pics from a block away, and know multiple people in the neighborhood, are completely irrelevant.

[deleted]

What would cause such an explosion?

welding tanks.

If I had to guess, synthesizing drugs. Grey market research chemicals (dem baff salts) only come from 2 places: legitimate chem labs with criminal intentions, or criminals with impressive-but-illegitimate chem labs. Maybe it was meth, too, but I suspect if it was a drug explosion it is research chemicals. Since theyre being developed/prototyped so quickly these days, I can easily see the recipes being popular on the black market. Less competition then meth, etc.

Agreed. 500 lb O2 tank will blow up a house. Now add multiple tanks a faulty/leaky valve, let the garage unknowingly fill with pure O2 and turn on a light or let the phone ring and boom.

I understand the difference. My point is that it made the news in a very large market halfway across the country. While its not national coverage on cable, it's still significant.

Reminds me a lot of this. Not nearly as large of an explosion, but still blew the house to pieces.

I took the time to google some missile and drone strike sites if you'd like to look at them for reference 1 2 3 4

Thanks for the pictures , but these all show concrete(?) houses not wooden houses. I think that a drone strike on a similar wooden house would have been about as much destruction as in this recent explosion.

thats a house full of gas that blew the fuck up

That honestly just looks like a natural gas explosion.

For those of you saying it was most likely a gas leak, check out Jim Stones article on his front page. Pretty compelling evidence it was military grade ordinance.

http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/

You seem to be making some good points , I'd love to hear that it was a strike called in.

At this point, there are still plausible answers, although they could amount to a conspiracy: a) failed attempt to make a bomb b) gas leak (still not entirely ruled out) c) drone strike assassination (wow if that is it) d) place plausible explanation here. Finding out who died in the blast is kind of critical. Of course if it was someone high profile we might never know. One thing is for sure, it would have made a great opener for an episode of X-Files.

plausible

...

c) drone strike assassination

Pick one.

I heard it was a drone strike. Not sure on who, or why?

nbc, abc, fox, yahoo, cnn, cnbc, huffington post.. there's tons of articles about this already out

Why is not on TV? Who cares...?

The TV shows just parrot what is already heard online.

I heard on NBC 7 out of Chicago the the public utility that services the area has ruled out a gas leak.

NBC 7 also stated in the same interview with the utility that it was not a meth lab.

The thing you got to investigate is who lived there. That will pretty much tell you if it was an accidental of some kind like a gas leak, or something more nefarious like a bomb or a gas leak via sabotage.

Yeah this was on all the major outlets this morning. Anyhoo, when I got to this thread I noticed all the obvious-shill posts had the exact same number of upvotes (8 at the time) LOL

Here is a cool radar image of the explosion on 11.10 at 11:10pm http://www.google.com/imgres?q=indianapolis+explosion&num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=853&bih=502&tbm=isch&tbnid=5sdCKZBJ1-_iSM:&imgrefurl=http://www.indystar.com/article/20121111/NEWS13/121111008/Paul-Poteet-Cloudy-breezy-exceptionally-mild%3Fodyssey%3Dmod%257Cnewswell%257Ctext%257CCommunities%257Cs&docid=2cZQ2jS1_QZBrM&imgurl=http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b579/alexanderhall03/KIND_Explosion.gif&w=640&h=480&ei=7GCiUMj3KqaByAG28oCABw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=560&vpy=172&dur=6700&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=149&ty=104&sig=104407938985991385014&page=4&tbnh=142&tbnw=190&start=31&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:20,i:257

the explosion happened on 11.10 at 11:10pm. How cool is that?

So, how does a house just blow up? No leaks, meth lab, or explosives...

Natural gas leak.

Thanks!

No leaks found according to reports I have read.

And, thank you.

People in the area reported hearing a noise, "failing engine", before the explosion. There's a YouTube video of the recording.

I heard a cannon like sound about 35 minutes prior to hearing the big boom. I live about 12 miles north of the explosion site.

Something way fucking weird happened there. I fear we will never know what exactly it was.

The worst thing is that redditors can't manage to find users willing to travel and investigate first hand.

The worst thing are the number of paranoids and dumbasses that infest this subreddit.

What do you mean? There's a secured perimeter and there will be for weeks.

[deleted]

I would have considered it a possibility...except THIS has been happening for months. I first started hearing them in mid-August. Hadn't heard one since early October until Saturday night.

could you provide the link?

E: Also if the sound is similar it may have been what I heard this morning at about 3:00 am. I don't think that is was a private plane as it was pouring rain and windy at the time. It also seemed to be flying incredible fast and low. I have a modicum of knowledge about aircraft from flight lessons as a kid. As well my bro, uncles and grandfather are all licensed pilots. So I thought it might be a drone as we have an air guard base in town and there are a few other air bases in the state.

Drone accident? Its no secret they're now being used by both public and private agencies alike.

E2: there to they're in last sentence. I was at work...

[deleted]

No reports point away from a gas leak, they still think it was most likely a gas leak they just have not found it yet, because the gas is shut off. where do you people come up with this bullshit?

No one smelled the chemical that smells strongly of rotten eggs?

Smells fishy to me

The owners of the house which blew up were out of town, most others were asleep.

Have you ever smelled a gas leak? Shit lingers for a day or more, however I'm not sure if it smells after ignites, no situation I've been in has gone that far.

I don't know for sure but with an explosion like that I'm assuming all the gas would be burned up leaving no smell.

Why did I get downvoted for offering my honest opinion.

I've worked in construction for several years, I've seen and smelt leaks, just never seen one explode.

It's not like I even made a blanket statement.

Not sure. Like you I was speaking based on opinion. No downvotes from me!

"seems fishy" because they are investigating an event that killed 2 people? give me a fucking break - this is the kind of bullshit that makes us all look stupid. How about you go read a book about the history of central banking or something, and stop with the weekly world news horse shit.

drone strike probably

if this is a conspiracy then can we find out who lived in these houses? The news reports did a whole story on the Teacher lady but only mentioned the deceased husband once by only his first name. There does seem to be something fishy, you would think a gas leak wold have been confirmed within a few hours.

Officials on the scene as of now have said there are no gas leaks.

They have not said that. They simply said they cant find a gas leak yet, but they have more investigations to do. The gas is shut off, so its not as easy to find leaks as you people seem to think. So stop spreading this lie.

If there was a gas leak from a defective furnace, there is probably no way to tell after the explosion. The furnace would almost surely be destroyed or so damaged that you couldn't tell whether it was leaking before the explosion.

IMO.... there is no excuse for not covering this story.

It doesn't matter what caused it, that explosion was fucking huge!!!

A meth lab will not produce that kind of explosion. Not to mention, who the fuck would make a meth lab in their Upper Middle Class neighborhood home?

This is EXTREMELY fishy.... even more so when there is a Media Blackout.

We really need to find out WHO died in this explosion.

Because a gas leak explosion really is not that big of a news item.

Who's the fuck face in here that's down voting legit comments?

You're a little bitch!

I agree.

Meth lab

Meth Academy

[deleted]

I believe they've also ruled out gas explosion.

I work for the Department of Public Safety in Indianapolis...Citizens Gas is unable to find any indication of a gas leak.

Actually botched drone strike.

If you believe sorcha faal then you are amongst the dumbest people on this planet. Im not even slightly joking about this. Stop with this weekly world news bullshit!

I would trust that article if it ever cited the report it claims to be basing all it's information off of.

What would cause such an explosion?

welding tanks.

If I had to guess, synthesizing drugs. Grey market research chemicals (dem baff salts) only come from 2 places: legitimate chem labs with criminal intentions, or criminals with impressive-but-illegitimate chem labs. Maybe it was meth, too, but I suspect if it was a drug explosion it is research chemicals. Since theyre being developed/prototyped so quickly these days, I can easily see the recipes being popular on the black market. Less competition then meth, etc.

Source? Because you are wrong. Nobody said "ruled out" they said they just cant find it yet and they have more investigation to do. In fact they said they believe it is most likely a gas leak they just have to find it. Its starting to sound like it was a faulty furnace, which would explain why they cant find problems in the gas lines. Why dont any of you handle details?

Natural gas leak.

Why does it look strange to you? Have you seen other gas line explosions before? If it looks strange compared to those what about it flags that for you?

Agreed. 500 lb O2 tank will blow up a house. Now add multiple tanks a faulty/leaky valve, let the garage unknowingly fill with pure O2 and turn on a light or let the phone ring and boom.

Nope. Only things officially ruled-out at this point are bomb, plane, and meth lab.

Literally a block away when it happened, so I'm following pretty closely. You are incorrect.