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wow cute doggie on the computer....and what happened that day, i am interested, and did you know the people who got killed.. and how did it affect your life?-syxxpm
The little dog is "Little Brother", from the Disney flick "Mulan"... You only see him once or twice, in the first 5 minutes of the film... But he's hysterical. :)
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February 1, 1999
Okay gang.
At about 1pm, I was in the Assembly Plant, installing some software on a client's system. There was a huge boom, and the building shook. This is not some flimsy little tin-roofed building; this is the Assembly Plant. It is not *supposed* to shake, and yet it shook as if God himself had reached down and hit the building with a sledgehammer.
There was a stunned silence, for approximately 5 minutes, and then the power slowly started to flicker and die. Within a minute of it starting to die, we were in pitch blackness. Being a systems admin, my first thought was for the network servers. I dropped what I was doing, and ran for the stairs. As I was going, I heard mumblings of "powerhouse" and "boilers".
As I drove out of the Assembly Plant, past the Powerhouse, there were flames shooting out the top and side of the powerhouse with rolls of inky black clouds roiling out the top. Once I got back to my building, and discovered that power was out there too, I heard what had happened.
One of the boilers had exploded at the Rouge Powerhouse. This is the building that supplies the entire assembly complex with power. The powerhouse is a huge building, with an open atrium-like center, five stories tall. The center open area is filled with power generating equipment that is approximately four stories tall. The fifth floor is an open level of catwalks and offices that overlook the machinery. The largest assembly plant of it's kind in the world was completely without running electricity. Then I heard the aftermath.
The explosion blew the siding and windows off the building, threw debris 1/4 of a mile into the air, and rocked the van that a co-worker of mine was in onto two wheels. A gigantic ball of fire shot into the air, as flames burst through the exposed siding. It decimated three of the five stories, and is still burning, according to the radio and TV news, hours later.
At this time, we've heard reports of one fatality, and nearly twenty injured. The entire afternoon shift is being turned away at the gates, and the complete assembly complex has been evacuated. We are not looking at work tomorrow either, as the entire plant is without power.
One of my co-workers in my office, also has an office on the fifth floor, and I was scheduled to install the software on her computer after I finished the one at the Assembly Plant. I have yet to hear anything about her. Your prayers, thoughts, candle-lightings, whatever, will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, all.
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Now, one year later:
The co-worker I was supposed to see had decided to take a late lunch, and so had left the building approx 12:30, so she could be there later, when I was supposed to work on her system. Due to this, she was out of the building when the blast occurred.
The blast and fire killed a total of six workers and in addition to the deaths, 34 workers were injured. In interviews with state investigators, workers said the building was dirty, unsafe practices were common, and cleaning was poor, according to records obtained by the Detroit Free Press for a story. "It was the worst building I've ever worked in," one unidentified worker was quoted as saying.
And in September 1999, the state fined Ford $1.5 million for safety violations at the power plant. Ford also paid about $30 million to settle lawsuits and agreed to give $5 million to researchers and hospital burn units.
The powerhouse stands gutted and empty, it's blackened, gaping windows a spectre of blame and a reminder of safety complaints ignored. One safety complaint came from pipefitter John Arseneau. He was killed in the blast. Arseneau's 1995 complaint said there were leaky valves in the boiler that later claimed his life.
The is the only pic I have at the moment of the powerhouse, taken the day of the blast: