A moment of silent prayer

[farmerjan]

Don't know if anyone saw anything on national news, but here in Virginia, we had a tragedy that bears a moment of thought and to be thankful every day for our families. There was an explosion at a small community "market", in the Buena Vista area. A little "mom and pop" type grocery/gas/convenience store that was a neighborhood tradition. The cause is still under investigation, although there is no indication of anything more than a horrible tragedy with no "terrorist" implications. They served many locals for a drink, cold cuts, good hot dogs, gas and the community chit/chat. Many stopped everyday. Although not totally known why, the station exploded and went up in flames in an instant. It is believed the owner, his son, and granddaughter, as well as a customer all may have lost their lives in this horrible tragedy. My son was called with VDOT to help with the road closures, the traffic control and helping keep the scene secured for investigators. The son played ball with my son and he stopped there frequently when in that area. We went by there often on the way to a farm we keep cattle on. The loss of so many in one family will be a burden for those remaining. Although all the details, as well as identities have not yet been released, it is pretty well known in the area who was there working at the time.
Be thankful for the time you have with your family, and tell them. There are terrible tragedies that happen daily everywhere, but this one has touched us here very deeply.

God bless all the mother's today also, on Mother's day.

 

[greybeard]

Kinda hard to 'like' that post but thanks for posting the information.
Not a whole lot of details regarding what caused the explosion, but appears to be an accident of some kind.

 

[sstterry]

I think I saw an onboard video of a bus that was passing at the time luckily on the driver and one passenger on board. Neither was killed. (At least I think it was this explosion)

Edit: The one I saw was in Durham, NC.

https://gfycat.com/politicalampledingo

 

[farmerjan]

Nothing is conclusive, but there was a delivery of gasoline prior and there is some thought that the tanks may have been overfilled and leaked, or that there were gas vapors that got under the foundation. The gasoline tanks are above ground due to the flood plain, but they are well maintained and it has been like that forever and the owner was a careful very "with it" owner so do not believe that it was his fault. Of course there will be alot of investigating before it is over. There is some video footage on Facebook; a neighbor was going to stop when he heard the boom and took a video while driving by. Look up Rockbridge County Va explosion or Buena Vista Va country store explosion. South River Market is the name of the store. Their facebook page showed the store as it was before the explosion. The WHOLE ENTIRE BUILDING just exploded and is gone. The gas tanks were intact, the safety valves did what they were supposed to my son said. It is such a sad tragedy.