Boom

---

Top: Close up image of the Harbor Drive Hilton minutes after the explosion. Used with permission. Copyright: Stan Pinck, 2008. Middle, Copyright Stan Pinck, 2008. Bottom: Two images the first copyright Stan Pinck, and the second taken by GSR Mark with my camera, Used with permission, Copyright Mark, 2008.

---

G: Images: Snapfish, my usual photo host is down. At the moment, I am using Photobucket, and don’t know the tricks of the program. I apologize for the not well posted images, and I will replace them with better copies when I can. One of our GSR’s kindly took my camera to the third tier and took pictures for me. Another, Sophie’s owner Stan, emailed me images this morning. Thank you all. Me: Proved totally incompetent at using my new cell phone. Imagine, I need practice using it. Where I grab it turns the sound off. I never heard the ring, and I was unable to enter a phone number. Imagine how much the fool I felt unable to respond in the middle of a real emergency. I came home and practiced with it before bed. I did mention to the boss that I was wearing out….again, and mentioned MRI and Ex-Rays. They checked on me often yesterday. I was grateful. I emailed the “Man” about money and retiring listing sums. Blogging Notes: ”Carnival’s “Man” ” says an MSMBC article. John Heald’s blog has been a huge hit. Work: Padre’s 2008 Schedule. Beginning a 20 day homestand stretch.

Yes, it was warm and sticky though many degrees cooler yesterday. The sun seemed relentless, and I appeared to have lost one of my bottles of water by the time I arrived at the ballpark. I arrived at my gate without a radio but with a cell phone number for emergencies. After everything was set up and dusted down, I moved under the ramp into the shade.

The air was filled with a giant boom. Much like a large scale artillery firing, the sound was very loud…a very clear sound echoing in between glass walled, downtown buildings. I thought it might be a bomb, but I was talking to a fan and pretended all was normal until she left.

Then I dithered while watching the crowds evacuate buildings and fill the sidewalks. When the engineering staff was evacuated, I used my cell phone to call and tell them this. Then, after half an hour of cell phone incompetence, they sent our roving expert over to me with news and a radio.



He had been up on the top deck inspecting an elevator that faced the Hilton. When the blast happened, not only did he see it but he was, “blown back” by it. Others rushed from their buildings to stand on the sidewalks. Some took photographs from their condos, and quickly crowds followed the ambulances and fire apparatus to over the Hilton.

At first word came that only three were injured. Then as the hours passed and more news came my way. Not a bomb, electrical….not electrical but a boiler explosion…the news changed by the minute. This morning the Union Tribune has more details. A gas explosion in the machinery space is what they are saying now with four floors damaged. Fourteen injured.

The game went on. We lost. Today we play again, and we will know more today about the Hilton. We certainly keep those 14 construction workers in our minds today.