House in Amityville Explodes

Last night, a house in Amityville on Long Island was leveled by an apparent gas explosion. Newsday reports, "The explosion at 34 Meadow Ln., off South Bayview Avenue, blew the first floor of the house to bits, showering the street and nearby houses with glass, wood and metal shards... The second floor then collapsed onto the foundation." Neighbors described it as a fireball. A family of four managed to get out of the house before the explosion--a relative said Rich Brown went to the crawl space, "smelled strong fumes and then grabbed the children and they all got outside just before the house blew up." Brown is grateful that the incident happened during the day, rather than when they were sleeping.

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By Jen Chung in News on December 29, 2008 8:14 AM

Comments [rss]

Felix Hoenikker

Pull my finger!

Jen Chung

@TKaisen—point taken, I've revised the headline to "House in Amityville Explodes." But if THE house exploded, I totally would have used "Amityville Horror House Explodes".

metalbot

how about "amityville horror: house explodes"

metalbot

oh wait. nevermind. if you use "collapes" you get to use "horror", but not "explodes" which is more exciting if less funny.

TKaisen

The headline is misleading. It suggests that THE house in Amityville exploded.

Peter

About 25 years ago, my aunt was lying on the sofa in her house in Connecticut watching television, when the concussion of a huge blast literally knocked her off the couch right onto the floor. She ran outside thinking there'd been an explosion next door or across the street. She was half-right. Indeed there had been a huge explosion, caused by a gas leak, that blew a house into a million pieces. Except it was more than a quater-mile away.

schadenfreudian mensch

The horror. Hope it wasn't built on an old Indian burial ground.

chuzzlewit

"...GETTT ..OUTTTT..."

jchez

Ever wonder why Hollywood has American ghosts as being so considerate while Japanese ghosts are portrayed as just nasty and mean?

American ghosts will warn you to avoid bloodshed (Amytyville Horror) while Japanese ones will not only not warn you, but even after you leave, they'll follow you to your other house and even to your place of business (The Grudge).

Lautaro

This is an amazing story. For a second there, I thought: "Does Michael Bay live in Amityville?" The reporting from Newsday and ABC has me a bit confused- Newsday states the father crawled into the crawlspace of the house, smelled the gas, and got his family out. ABC has it that the couple called the gas company, which told them to get out. One version has the dad as the hero, while the other credits the gas company. No scandal, really- I just thought that was interesting.

jchez

Quick no-nonsense thinking on the part of Mr. Brown. So many people that I've met just smell gas and hang around to investigate or wait for the Gas company to show up. So far the consequences have been minor but this story teaches everyone not to linger.

BTW, when I saw the headline I thought that the Amytiville Horror house was the one that exploded.

jchez

Quick no-nonsense thinking on the part of Mr. Brown. So many people that I've met just smell gas and hang around to investigate or wait for the Gas company to show up. So far the consequences have been minor but this story teaches everyone not to linger.

BTW, when I saw the headline I thought that the Amytiville Horror house was the one that exploded.