Cause of downtown Bozeman explosion announced; from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Friday, March 13, 2009

The natural gas leak that likely led to the explosion in downtown Bozeman last week was in a service line between the main gas line and the Montana Trails Gallery, investigators said Friday morning.

The service line is the responsibility of NorthWestern Energy, officials said.

The explosion killed one woman and destroyed numerous downtown Bozeman businesses.

On the Wine Spectator website, here: http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,4924,00.html

The list of Wine Spectator Restaurant Award recipients is sadly one name shorter this week after a natural-gas explosion destroyed Wine Spectator Award of Excellence-winning restaurant Boodles in Bozeman, Mont., on March 5. The powerful blast took with it Boodles and its nearly 1,000-bottle inventory, as well as the Rocking R Bar, the Montana Trails art gallery and the American Legion club. An employee of Montana Trails was killed in the blast, and is presumed to have been the only one in the building at the time. Montana State Rep. JP Pomnichowski was on the scene within hours of the explosion and has been fast-tracking business loans and unemployment benefits for those affected. A fund has been established at First Security Bank in Bozeman for anyone wishing to make donations. A community fair-style benefit has been scheduled for March 28 at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds, just 15 blocks from the site of the explosion. “The owners that I’ve reached have every intention of coming back better than they were,” Pomnichowski said. “I still can’t process that one of the best restaurants in Bozeman, Boodles, is gone.”

Lieutenant Colonel Morris of the Montana National Guard, (unknown), Governor Schweitzer, Montana Department of Transportation Director Jim Lynch (green jacket, back turned), and Montana State Representative JP Pomnichowski (D-Bozeman, right side) on the 200 block of Main Street in Bozeman Thursday, March 5, three hours and five minutes after the explosion and fire that leveled three buildings and consumed five businesses.

Bozeman is open for business.

Bozeman has suffered such a devastation in our beautiful historic downtown, but in three days’ time, the city officials and fire department and police, our public works people, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, our citizen soldiers in the National Guard, my friends and neighbors, our wonderful businesses, and people across the state have rallied for Bozeman.


The force of the explosion on Thursday morning destroyed six businesses and structures immediately. The street is still filled with rubble: bricks, timbers, cinder blocks, metal beams, and shards of broken glass, glass everywhere. The fire still smolders, but the gas is finally off and the raging fire is over. We can concentrate on recovery and investigation now, and soon, on strengthening our businesses and center of commerce, our historic downtown business district that’s a jewel in the state.

Day One: the initial blast happened around 8:12 a.m. and fire ignited immediately. The blast radius is about four blocks. Witnesses at city hall, two blocks away, said they saw the roof blow off the building and come crashing back down. A heavy steel door, bolted and on heavy hinges, was blown off the back of Boodles or the Rockin’ R, across the back of the lot, across the alley, and lodged midway up the cinder block wall of the empty former Bozeman TV and Appliance building. That building was so rocked by the blast that the entire structure has shifted many inches off center, the ceilings and floors have buckled and cracked, and it is almost certainly not habitable anymore. Other buildings suffered broken windows, broken masonry, damaged signs and awnings and fixtures; vehicles in the street in front of the businesses and parked behind are utterly destroyed.

For many hours on Day One, firefighters fought a blaze fueled by an eight-inch natural gas main. NorthWestern Energy workers dug up the alley behind the site and on the eastern end of the block to try to stop the natural gas flow. They installed stoppage valves, but around 9:20 that night, more than twelve hours after the blast, the gas was still not off. It wasn’t quelled until about 1:15 a.m., seventeen hours after the incident began.

The response to the scene was immediate, coordinated, and so professional; I’m proud to be a part of a community with such committed people. Through that night, National Guard members took posts securing the site, securing businesses, managing traffic and emergency vehicles and staging, and I am so grateful, too, for our own citizens at the ready at a moment’s notice to help our fair city.

I was desperate to get to Bozeman from our state capitol as soon as I heard about the blast. I have friends on the Bozeman Fire Department and in all the city offices, and wanted to do all I can to help. My first questions were about how long our firefighters had been on the scene–it’s exhausting work, and once on scene, a firefighter is reluctant to leave. When I served as a firefighter/EMT, I wouldn’t leave a scene until everything was wrapped up, and this is a multi-service, multi-day scene. I was concerned for our sheriff’s deputies and police officers, who’d responded immediately, sweeping for anyone injured, then securing the scene. I asked our public works officer how our water pressure was holding up: there were two five-inch fire lines and two ladder trucks pouring water on the fire, and many more 2 1/2″ lines. It’s estimated that 4.3 million gallons of water were put on the fire. The water mains were emptied so quickly that the drinking water in Bozeman, completely safe to drink, did take on a turbid quality, and our water operators added chlorine to the drinking water. In a situation like this, it’s a mighty good thing we’re a gravity-fed system.

I asked about air quality from our public safety nurse, Stephanie Nelson, and the city answered that they were measuring air quality. Later Thursday, when the wind changed and smoke began blowing more directly toward Hawthorne School, the school evacuated the kids to the Bozeman Public Library when the air intakes began sucking in that smoke. The next day, with the fire down to a smolder, the school was in session as per usual.

Going forward, I’ll work to secure our economic strength. I’m working with the governor’s office and the Small Business Association on some SBA loans, and workers displaced by the blast will be briefed on Tuesday at the Bozeman Job Service. For them, there will be expedited unemployment benefits, since we recognize that they won’t be able to provide the usual documents required for filing. I’ll bird-dog the federal recovery money and state infrastructure money to make sure we rebuild and strengthen our fair town. Know that I’ll do all I can, always, for Bozeman and for our state.

Thanks, everyone. Rally. And–Go, Cats!

Tonight, the MSU Bobcats won a first-round victory over the hated UM Grizzlies 56-54 in Missoula in Big Sky Conference tournament play. Woo hoo! Go, ‘Cats!

This is a nice bright spot in an otherwise very painful and surreal week. I’ve served on the Bobcat Stat Crew for 18 years (football; 15 years, basketball), and I’m so proud that this Cat-Griz went the way that all of them should go: with a Bobcat VICTORY!

The story from msubobcats.com:

Bobcat junior Will Bynum’s steal and ensuing three-point play with six-seconds remaining paced MSU to a 56-54 win over Montana, Saturday night in Dahlberg Arena in opening round action of the Big Sky Tournament.

Where there is a Will, there is a way

Montana State junior Will Bynums steal, layin and free throw with 6-seconds remaining sealed a 56-54 win over intra-state rival Montana, Saturday night in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference tournament in Dahlberg Arena.

Montana State (13-16) trailed 30-29 at intermission.

In the second stanza, the Bobcats opened up a 50-42 advantage with 6:28 left on a Bobby Howard trey and MSU staved off a late Montana (17-12) rally to advance to the Big Sky Final Four in Ogden, Utah.

Bynum led the Bobcats with 15 points, while Divaldo Mbunga added nine points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Also contributing to the MSU attack were Eric Rush with ten rebounds and Howard with nine points.

For the game, Montana State controlled the boards notching a 40-29 rebounding advantage. The Bobcats also collected 18 offensive rebounds.

The Bobcats will travel to Weber State, where they will face No. 1 Weber State, Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., in the Dee Events Center.

In the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Sunday, March 8, 2009

Getting back to business

published on Saturday, March 7, 2009 11:38 PM MST

By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer

Emergency responders walked a tightrope Saturday, balancing fire suppression with the safety of searchers and investigators sifting through the debris from the natural-gas explosion that destroyed half a city block downtown Thursday.

One woman was still missing when search operations were shut down at dark for safety concerns, Bozeman Fire Chief Jason Shrauger said.

The source of the explosion is still unknown, he said.

Although there are six agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives trying to determine the cause of the blast, workers are concentrating on finding evidence of the missing woman.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, Shrauger said. But were focusing all our efforts on the recovery of the missing person.

Authorities are still not releasing the missing womans name.

We are still in the middle of our investigation, Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn said Saturday. Until weve reached any conclusions, it would be inappropriate for us to comment. We are sharing everything thats appropriate to share.

Retrieving precious belongings

The explosion in the 200 block of East Main Street sparked a fire and flattened the Montana Trails Gallery, LillyLu and Montana Ballet Company and Boodles. It also caused significant damage to the Rocking R Bar, Pickle Barrel, American Legion Hall, Rocky Mountain Rug Gallery and Starkys Authentic Delicatessen.

As the investigation continued Saturday morning, Gallatin County sheriffs deputies, Montana Highway Patrol troopers, city police officers and firefighters escorted business owners and residents into buildings closest to the blast.

One of those residents was Sean Lehmann, a professional musician who lived above Starkys. Lehmann was not at home at the time of the blast, but his roommate was. The roommate was awakened that morning when a 2-by-4 crashed through the skylight and landed on him. He ran from the building.

On Saturday, the group of residents and business owners on the street broke into applause when they saw Shrauger emerge from a building carrying Lehmanns stand-up and electric basses.

Lehmann had been able to recover a couple of other instruments earlier but said that in looking at photographs of his apartment taken by firefighters, it was clear his roommates saxophones had been buried under rubble.

Shasta Grenier and Jason Lubke, award-winning directors of the film Class C, the only game in town, also live in the second-story apartments. They were able to retrieve a majority of footage for a current project, along with cameras and editing gear that was in their apartment Saturday morning.

And although Grenier was pleased, she was circumspect.

My thoughts are just with everybody who lost so much more, she said.

Mollie McKiernan, who lives in an apartment on Mendenhall Street just behind the blast, was also downtown Saturday. After 24 hours of anxiety over the status of her cats, she was escorted into her home Friday and found them unharmed.

My situation pales compared to whats going on with these people, she said.

Relatively untouched

Meanwhile some of business owners just east of the Legion hall were amazed to find little or no damage to their buildings or merchandise.

Bert Hopeman, who owns Montana Gift Corral, said his is the second-oldest building in Bozeman. Structures six blocks away had sustained more significant damage than his, he said.

I cant believe this, he said, looking around his nearly unscathed shop. There are 24,600 items in this store. We could have had one hell of a mess.

Its wild how it differed from building to building, he said.

Les Gunderson, general manager of the gift store, said shes ready to open as soon as authorities will allow.

Were opening five minutes after they give us the go-ahead, Gunderson said.

Tim and Beverly Christiansen, who own Vino per tutti, next door, were amazed to find not a single bottle of wine had been damaged.

They are hoping authorities will allow pedestrians onto the block Monday.

I feel very fortunate that were coming out of this so unscathed, Tim Christiansen said.

Although the wine store has electricity, the gas and heat will be off until the fire operations are complete, which means Monday could be a chilly day in the wine store.

It may be cold but well just pretend its a big wine cellar, he said.

In explaining why some businesses nearly adjacent to the blast site seemed almost untouched compared to others blocks away, structural engineer Matt Miller said the damage was caused by the concussion from the blasts shock wave which ricocheted off the brick and glass of historic downtown structures.

A window in his own office at Willson Avenue and Babcock Street sustained a significant crack, he said.

Miller taped a fluorescent yellow sign to the intact window on Montana Gift Corrals front door. The sign, like those on many doors on both sides of the block, indicated that the building had been inspected and was structurally sound.

Seeing for themselves

As firefighters continued to fight the still-burning fire in the rubble, people gawked from newly reopened side streets and from store windows on the south side of Main Street.

HomePage Caf owner Bruce Muller served up coffee, pastries and sandwiches Saturday afternoon to patrons who had entered his business from the alley south of Main Street.

Business was somewhat brisker than a typical Saturday, Muller said, attributing it to people wanting to see the blast site and support downtown businesses.

Theres a lot of sympathy for the businesses downtown, he said. People are tipping more than usual. Theres general concern and relief. To get things open again, its beginning to get better even though its early.

You can see how its brought the community together, his wife and co-owner Frankee Muller said. The community has done like this, she said, meshing the fingers of both hands together.

National Guard called off

By noon Saturday, the Montana National Guard wrapped up its work keeping downtown safe. The exclusion zone around the blast site had been reduced to less than a full city block.

The Guard unit went from nine checkpoints, to seven to two before packing up.

Capt. Russ Cunningham, who recently returned from serving in Afghanistan, said the unit was happy to help out.

Its not often that we get to help out in our own community, he said.

After the floor session in the Montana Legislature this morning, I drove home to Bozeman and went straight downtown. The Bozeman Police Department has the scene of the terrible explosion and fire taped off and secured, but the fire still smolders–it will for days.

Amazingly, the very day of the blast, city officials were escorting business owners into their stores and restaurants, and businesses are open all around the site. The stores have been inspected and have certificates of exterior and interior inspection posted clearly on their windows.

Downtown was quiet in late afternoon today. The people downtown walked down the closed Main Street (just at the 200 block) to see the site of the explosion.

I am amazed and honored that our city building inspectors and city officials have responded so very quickly to keep our precious center of commerce operating.

We have had National Guard troops helping us for two days, and they returned home today. Bozeman Police are securing the site, and for all the firefighters, police, city workers, National Guard troops, everyone, the businesses have posted signs of thanks and offers of free vittles for the workers. There have been innumerable offers of help: food, shelter, people, resources. This is the town that’s Bozeman.

The site is smoldering and a recovery and investigation effort is underway. For the blast radius of a block or so, no one is allowed in. There is glass and building material and debris on the street and on the roofs and in the trees of the blocks and businesses surrounding the site. Part of the facade of the Rockin’ R remains, as does part of the American Legion building, but the debris on site is in a deep and high pile with a daunting layer of ice on the cars, street, utility lines, and detritus.

The weather on Thursday was bad. There were six inches of heavy icy snow on the street and sidewalks, which kept a lot of people from getting to work on time. There’s precious little that’s a blessing about this, but the fact that no more than one person remains unaccounted for, and no one was injured in the blast or in the emergency response, is simply amazing. The potential for a much more dire outcome was great.

Today, temperatures in the morning were downright crisp: around 8 degrees, in Bozeman and in Helena. After the morning floor session of the House of Representatives, I drove home. By that time, early afternoon, it was in the mid-30s, so the street and scene melted off a bit. There’s subzero weather coming in the next day or so.

The perimeters around the scene have been progressively moved back toward the block, and people can access businesses and patronize the downtown, and they will. There have already been great efforts to remove materials from the surrounding area. I know there’s frustration for a few businesses that have much more to do to recover; people want to get into buildings and recover what they can, but it’s been just 61 hours since the blast, the fire’s still burning, structures are compromised, and it isn’t safe.

Bozeman, Gallatin County, Bozeman Fire Department and fire districts all around the area, our National Guard, our state agencies, and federal forces are coordinated in a continuing response. I’ve been in close contact with the governor’s office since the day of the blast, and for displaced workers, there will be accelerated unemployment benefits and easier applications; we recognize people won’t have pay stubs to present because many of these businesses don’t have their computers or records anymore.

The state and Small Business Administration are working toward expedited loans. Businesses who have unreimbursed, uninsured losses can apply for low-interest loans, no higher than 4% interest rate; I’ll know more about how many businesses will form that group, what the term and benefits of the loans will be, next week. Be assured I’ll stay at the front of this to make sure we recover well, with all the resources we need at the ready.

Good God.

Yesterday, an explosion and fire in Whitehall, about forty miles from Bozeman, destroyed at least two businesses housed in historic downtown buildings. From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle today:
It was an explosion, said Gabi Hall, co-owner of the Legion Grill It knocked me right off my chair.
After Hall heard the loud boom, around 11 a.m., she and others evacuated the restaurant, which had just started filling up with a lunchtime crowd.
After the initial explosion, Legion Grill co-owner Jane Bowman ran back into the business to collect some personal belongings. Within minutes, visibility inside the restaurant was totally obscured, she said.
That smoke was pretty intense, Ill tell you, Bowman said.
There were flames going, I dont know, 100 to 200 feet in the air, said Legion employee Catherine Ball. It was like a movie, a scary movie.
Whitehall Fire Chief Rick Strauss said, We escalated right away and asked for help immediately.
Nearly 35 firefighters from Whitehall, Butte-Silver Bow, Willow Creek and Twin Bridges battled the flames.
By Friday afternoon, it was still unclear where or what had started the blaze that destroyed the Legion Grill, the Mint Bar, Cottage Floral, DD Tax Service and Steve Warmoth Enterprises.
– – – – –
Two explosions and fires destroyed businesses and structures in two Montana communities in two days. There was an earthquake registering 4.5 on the Richter scale yesterday morning at 4:30 a.m., with its epicenter about 12 miles south of Whitehall. An aftershock registering 3.5 came a half hour later, with smaller aftershocks to four hours after the original quake. It’s unknown yet whether that had any effect on the subsequent Whitehall explosion and fire, but it was just 12 miles south.

Bozeman yesterday suffered a devastation downtown, when five businesses and three historic buildings on our Main Street were destroyed in a natural gas explosion and fire. Dozens more structures, businesses, and lives were impacted. I returned home immediately upon hearing, to offer any help or support I could, and I’ll write more of my time at the scene, my conversations with city, state, and federal officials, but for now, here are my first statements about the event.
– – – – – – – –


Probably, many of you have seen the front pages of today’s newspapers from around the state, and watched television accounts showing and reporting yesterday’s devastating explosion and fire in downtown Bozeman.

But watching in person, as I did Thursday afternoon, puts an entirely different perspective on seeing hopes and dreams go up in flames for business owners, employees, and citizens alike. The scene was one of utter devastation. There was the crackle of the fire, the smell of acrid smoke, destroyed vehicles on the street, and debris everywhere. I walked around the blast site and saw pieces of girders, cinder blocks and bricks, wood beams, and glass–glass everywhere. The amount of water on the fire was simply amazing, and black water ran in the street. The scene was devastating, but the emergency response was immediate, coordinated, orderly, and unflinching.

When I flew immediately to Bozeman yesterday to see the conflagration and find out what state help might apply, my acquaintanceship was renewed with the unhesitating professionalism of those we sometimes casually call ‘public safety people.’

Firefighters on the towering aerial ladders above the flames and those all around the site have trained a long time for firefighting and rescue, and did it without a second thought. The police officers and sheriffs deputies with their backs to another possible explosion shooed away spectators to a respectable distance for their own good. They take risks every day in my behalf and in yours. Workers from the natural gas company responded to attempt a fix.

Our National Guard is on the scene helping to secure the site of the explosion and the businesses and blocks around the site, and I am grateful for such a fine and responsive force in my city’s time of need. Our emergency responders, city, state, and federal, all have come together to handle this emergency. NorthWestern Energy workers were on the scene about an hour after the explosion, tearing up the alley on the affected block to install stoppage valves in the natural gas line. It took them 17 1/2 hours to get the gas shut off.

My deepest thanks to all such public safety and public utility workers who do these things at every emergency without a flinch. They’re great.

It also was gratifying to witness the instant response of city government, smoothly putting into action its well-thought-out plan for handling disasters. Their planning for various emergency scenarios covered every base.

This terrible accident may well be the largest property damage disaster in Bozeman history. Our city has been devastated structurally, historically, economically, and socially. And of course my heart goes out to the family and friends of the person still unaccounted for in this tragedy.

Bozeman’s downtown is a real gem among Montana city centers. That mercantile vibrancy is testament to the hard work and investment of its store owners and workers, who are remarkably successful at attracting and holding repeat buyers week after week, year after year.

Bozeman will recover because of the can-do attitude and resilience of the shopkeepers there. I should point out that other store owners around town started calling the victims of this disaster right away, offering help of any kind. Downtown business owners worried for their own shops came to city hall to ask how they could help others affected by the blast, immediately. That’s the kind of town it is.

Finally, thank you for your prayers and sympathies. Montana Legislatures past and present have also played a key role, helping to provide things like the public safety services, planning funds and expertise, highway money, safety regulations, unemployment benefits and the myriad of government services that come into play during such awful events.

This event will impact us deeply in the days, months, and years to come. Bozeman has changed, but I ask for your help as we move forward through this emergency.

If you haven’t yet seen the breakdown of money from the federal stimulus money for Montana, here’s a snapshot. The tax breaks for Montanans will be significant, too; the director of the Montana Department of Revenue gave a briefing at the legislature today about that.

$626 million for Montana

How much money will Montana see from the economic stimulus bill approved Friday by Congress, and where will the money go? Here’s a breakdown from the Montana Economic Developers Association:

National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance: $247,461

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP):$261,650

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): $50,046,787

Emergency Food and Shelter Program**: $172,693

Drinking Water State Revolving Fund: $19,651,000

Clean Water State Revolving Fund: $19,537,800

Highway Funding: $211,793,391

Transit Formula Funding: $15,611,710

Public Housing Capital Fund: $4,451,699

HOME Funding: $7,944,201

Homelessness Prevention Fund: $3,750,116

Community Development Block: $2,499,048

Byrne/JAG: $5,000,000

Crime Victims: $222,847

Internet Crimes Against Children Grants: $403,670

Violence Against Women Grants: $1,018,559

State Energy Program: $25,688,000

Weatherization: $27,059,681

Child Care and Development Block Grant $5,747,006

Head Start: $2,081,661

State Stabilization Fund: $121,371,174

Title I Education for the Disadvantaged: $44,013,000

Education Technology: $4,839,000

Community Services Block Grant: $4,544,915

Senior Meals Programs: $500,000

Dept. of Labor – State Employment Service Grants: $2,945,782

Dept. of Labor – Dislocated Workers State Grants: $1,728,009

Dept. of Labor – Adult State Grants: $1,246,875

Dept. of Labor – Youth State Grants: $2,947,500

Dept. of Education – Vocational Rehabilitation: $1,880,400

Dept. of Education – Special Education Part B, Section 611: $36,708,000

TOTAL: $625,913,635