The Shiespa Gas Explosion: revisited

Today marks one year since the Shiespa gas explosion that killed three people. It was a quiet sunny Monday last year when we heard an almighty explosion that shook our apartment building more than any quake had ever done, my Mum was visiting and she remarked that it sounded like a bomb had gone off. A quick investigative trip to the balcony revealed a huge plume of smoke rising into the air, just a couple of blocks down the hill. I grabbed my camera and jumped on my bike and was there within a couple of minutes of the explosion. I arrived to a scene of chaos, dust and concrete filling the air, and a small group of people slowly converging on the scene. A couple of police sprinted past me communicating through their shoulder radio piece what they could work out had happened, and for a few minutes the handful of people stood, stared, and tried to work it out themselves. It was a good 10 minutes before the police cordoned off the area and the real media began to arrive, and for the next few days it became the centre of one of the nations major news stories. At that time we didn't know if it was a bomb or what, we didn't even know if anyone was inside the building when it had exploded, but as the chaos ensued it became pretty obvious that there were people both inside, and walking past that had been majorly injured.