Photo coverage of Pleasant Ridge Drive home explosion

Posted on by Jeff Fobes

“Structure Fire: AshevilleFD on the scene of fire on Pleasant Ridge Drive. Heavy smoke showing. Possibly result of gas leak,” was the report via Twitter at 3:45 p.m. from the Asheville Fire Department.

“House exploded in east Asheville on pleasent ridge drive. roof is on front yard http://twitpic.com/1enegh,” wrote @Isaaclar via Twitter at 4:12 p.m., attaching his photo:

— Photo by Isaaclar. Used with permission.

At the same moment, @2640Interchange tweeted, “Firefighter battles blast felt up to a mile away.”

Moments later, @2640Interchange tweeted, “House on Pleasant Ridge Drive in E. Asheville destroyed – http://twitpic.com/1enf8u,” attaching this photo:

— Photo by Holly Harwood-Edes. Used with permission.

According to an article today in the Asheville Citizen-Times: “Firefighters remain on the scene of the fire, which was reported about 3:30 p.m. No injuries were reported, and arson investigator Buddy Thompson said the house, at 13 Pleasant Ridge Drive, had been vacant for about a month after the death of the owner. Family members were in the process of emptying the house of its contents, but were not at the home at the time of the fire.”
That article is located at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100410/NEWS01/100410014

A little later, @Isaaclar sent this photo:

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About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes
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