Seattle Gas Blast Levels Businesses

Shop owners on Wednesday inspected walls that were ripped to shreds by an early morning natural gas explosion in Seattle and marveled that the blast had caused no serious injuries. Crews were responding to reports of a gas leak when the explosion occurred about 1:40am along a main thoroughfare in a neighborhood north of downtown. The blast sent nine firefighters to a hospital; all were treated and released. There were no reports of other injuries or missing people, the AP reports. Still, dogs searched the rubble. The cause of the explosion that damaged 36 businesses, destroying some, was under investigation.

"The most important thing is that no one died and this happened at two in the morning and not two in the afternoon," said Chris Maykut, owner of Chaco Canyon Organic Café. "If it had happened at two in the afternoon, things would be really bad right now." (More gas leak stories.)