Bull City Strong

On April 10, 2019 around 10:20 a.m a gas leak turned into a  deadly gas explosion in my hometown, Durham North Carolina. When I was sitting in class at High Point University, I got a text from my bother who is a police officer, with the link to a live feed. I was stunned and scared with what I was watching on the news. I watched the live stream through my entire class and was texting all of my friends that were in Durham making sure they were safe. 

The location where the explosion occurred was in Downtown Durham, a block down from my place of work. My coworkers were immediately evacuated for the day. When I got on the phone with the manager there, she told me it sounded and felt like a plane had crashed into the building. The sky was filled with black smoke and alarms were going off everywhere. The nearby businesses all had windows blown in because of the impact. It was terrifying for everyone around the block.

A Durham Public School is on the same block that the building exploded on. The site of the explosion is directly across a two lane street to the school building. DSA, which I have friends that attend were forced into lock down for about an hour. Many of the students were scared and curious to what exactly was going on. After they were released from lock down, the school busses took them all to a local shopping mall where parents could pick them up. April 10th is a day many of those students will never forget.

Unfortunately two people were killed in this tragic accident. Thankfully, someone reported a smell of gas before the explosion so most of the building had already been evacuated. 17 people were still injured but two of those 17 passed away. The owner of Kaffinate, a coffee shop that was part of the explosion, refused to leave when the buildings were being evacuated was killed during the accident. Community members stand with his family and continue to donate money towards them. The coffee shop was a second home for many community members and students, and is a great loss to Durham. The second person to pass was Jay Rambeaut. Jay was inside the building examining the gas leak when it exploded. He was in the hospital for about 2 weeks after the accident and passed away on April 24, 2018. Many local businesses are doing fundraisers for his family in honor of Jay.

The Durham Explosion was a tragic, scary, and sad day for everyone with a connection to Durham. Many locals and students still pass by the site of the accident daily and pray together for the families effected. The explosion could have been much worse if people had not been previously evacuated. I thank god that my family was not personally effected by this explosion.