Strip club destroyed.
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
A natural gas explosion destroyed a strip club in busy downtown Springfield, Mass., on Friday night, injuring at least eight people and damaging nearby businesses, according to early news reports.
The Springfield Republican reports that the Scores Gentleman's Club was flattened following a reported gas leak. WWPL-TV says that one police officer and two Columbia Gas of Massachusetts workers were among the injured, and that none of the injuries are life threatening.
Police said the blast happened about 5:25 p.m. ET as gas workers looked for a leak under the road, Reuters reports. One dancer told the Republican that gas workers had come to Scores during the week after employees reported smelling gas, but they found nothing.
The club had not yet opened for the night, WWPL says, although its posted hours are noon until 2 a.m.
The club, on Worthington Street, "is like a huge cavity in the road," the Republican writes. A day-care center next door and a nearby five-story building were heavily damaged. Windows were blown out 1½ blocks away, and glass littered a several-block radius.
A Scores dancer named Debbie said she was on stage when the "house mom" came up and told everyone to evacuate. She told the paper she saw smoke when she went upstairs to get her clothes, and the manager ordered everyone to get out, "naked or not."
Another dancer said they got 20 minutes' notice to leave.
"I went across the street to the Mardi Gras Champagne Room, where we were having a drink, and the building where I work blew up," 21-year-old Megan Labombard said.
The downtown was crowded with holiday revelers. Between 30 and 40 people were in Theodore's, about two blocks from Scores.
"It rocked us so hard the windows smashed. It felt like an earthquake or a large explosion," waitress Stephanie Simmons told the Republican. "There was pretty much chaos."
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12 comments
Of all the weird and wonderful hydrocarbons that I have encountered during my career there is nothing more explosive or volatile than nat gas and its various components. It can even kill you without exploding. Sour gas (nat gas laced with H2S) is lethal.
I'll bet they found the lap dance room & ATM's quick enough, though.