Residents Assess Damage After Blast

DANVERS, Mass. -- Investigators said they are closing in on the source an explosion at a Danvers chemical plant last week that destroyed several nearby homes.

NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that residents are slowly being let back into their homes, but it could be months before they are allowed to move back in.

"Every day it looks better, feels better, so we should be all set," said homeowner Jose Milanes.

Riverside Street looked better on Tuesday, but there is still along way to go until many residents to get back into their homes. Several homes will need to be torn down.

"My house is actually in worse shape than they thought. I think it is savable, but now they are talking about that I am not really supposed to go in there until some floors are shored up and that kind of thing. I think we are going to be able to save it, but I can’t bring the cleaning crews in or anything like that because it is not safe to go in there," said homeowner Amy Goodenow.

The houses on Riverside Street have varying amount of damage, but some of the homeowners have already become resigned to the fact that they will not be back for months.

"Variation of a lot of structural damage from one house to the next -- anywhere from glass breaking right down to complete roofs that need to be torn off and everywhere in between," said John Direnzo of Instar Services.

Mary Storzoni was in the process of selling her Riverside Street home when the blast occurred. The closing was scheduled for Wednesday.

"I am returning on everything under my name because it was supposed to go off today because we are closing," she said.

Storzoni said she is unsure if the sale will go through.

"(The buyer) came through today and now he is going back and he took pictures and he is going back with his lawyer and get in touch with my lawyer and hope they come to an agreement," she said.

On Tuesday, Danvers officials released a tape of several 911 calls from residents and a tape from the fire department's control center of the moments after the explosion.

"We have an emergency. We're 73 Kernwood Ave. There was a giant explosion outside the house. We don't know if something's crashed into the house," one caller told an emergency dispatcher.

"We know what it is, ma'am. We're on our way," the dispatcher said. "Everybody's out? Everybody's safe?"

"Yeah, but my boss is still inside," the caller said.

"Is he trapped?" the dispatcher asked.

"No, he's not trapped," the caller said.

"Get him out of that building now. Get out," the dispatcher said.

Another 911 caller thought the explosion was a plane crash.

"Oh my God. A plane crashed or something," the caller said.

Emergency crews described what they saw when they arrived on the scene.

"We got a plume of smoke. There's a light in the sky over in that area down the port," said Danvers Fire Capt. Doug Conrad. "Fire showing in the port area. We're not even up there yet. Looks like the buildings are on fire ... We continue to have explosions. I need police officers to start evacuating this area."

Emergency crews started going door-to-door checking on residents.

"Give me as many ambulances as you can down here. We have multiple injuries. We probably have four or five houses that have had the back part of their building blown out and dozens across the street that have had all their windows blown out," Conrad said.

There was an agreement among local investigators on Tuesday that the U.S. Chemical Board and other federal officials would be allowed to share the blast site and start their investigations.