Page 16 - Steam Pipe Explosion News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> but before everyone clears out -- >> the smoke began to suck in, which is an indication the fire was drawing for oxygen. and i had enough time to go, "oh," and do a 180, and it was over. >> the building explodes into smithereens. >> it was incredible, incredible, but it was more worrisome. we kind of looked at each other and thought, uh-oh. did we lose somebody? >> we've got people laying everywhere. i need rescue. >> the force of the explosion blows firefighters to the ground. >> i remember hearing another one of our battalion chiefs that was near me calling for ambulances. i thought, oh, ...

Had all the right looks and the right recipe for that to just instantaneously blow. >> cameraman matt armitage is shooting the explosion for indiana's news channel. >> all of a sudden smoke started pouring out of the building all at once. that's when i started rolling on it. >> seconds later the building erupts. >> a huge boom. you could feel it, too. you could feel the boom, besides the noise. you could actually feel the explosion. >> the mushroom cloud is seen more than a mile away. >> it was a big explosion. the fireball, the orange-red fireball that came after it was incredible. >> but you...

Up right behind you, it's tough to be prepared for that. >> the explosion continues for several hundred feet, shooting out sparks and blowing out a transformer. >> watch out, jason! >> another firefighter dives out of the way to avoid being electrocuted. >> watch out, jason! >> went up the street. it kept going up -- there was a transformer up the block, and there was another fire department guy up there. you could see him run and jump over the snowbank to get out of the way of it. >> the bursting heat and energy vaporizes everything in its path. >> if you look at it in slow motion, there's sp...

The next thing you know, i hear boom. >> a surveillance camera shows what happened. the top of the screen, out of nowhere, the street explodes as if a giant bomb goes off. >> you could see absolutely a terrorized expression on all these people's faces because they didn't know what it was. they probably thought it was a bomb in the subway system. >> with september 11th never far from new yorkers' minds, many think the explosion is another terrorist attack. >> yeah, you think it's terrorism. that's the first thought that goes through anybody's mind. >> people run for cover as the dirt, rocks and...

Something, you know, some scary alien. >> but at least one good samaritan helps. 27-year-old junior suarez, an office worker, runs out of his building after the explosion and sees mccullough dazed and disfigured. >> i can't get it out of my head. the whole scene just kept playing over and over and his screams and the smell that came from him, his skin burning, his flesh. it's just hard. it really is hard. >> despite the horror, suarez stays with mccullough until a paramedic comes. >> the whole time he was still screaming and screaming, and he wouldn't stop screaming. it was just really hard to...