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| Explosion rocks Lake Wilson |
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By: JoAnn Biren, staff writer |
January 14, 2004 |
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Monday evening residents of Lake Wilson were awakened by an explosion that blasted its way through the town. The fire hall was one of the hardest hit. 
This fire truck is wrapped in yelow caution tape after parts were torn off during the blast. 
The storage shed was completely destroyed in the explosion. 
The force of the blast tore this door off a fire truck and tossed it in the air. 
The Lake Wilson First Responders housed their emergency vehicle in this building hit hard by the blast. 
Many homes in Lake Wilson were damaged during the blast. 
The Lake Wilson bank sustained damage to the interior as well as the exterior. 
Debris could be seen in every direction as the town was covered as things settled down. | Monday, January 12, 11:15 p.m. Lake Wilson once again devastated |
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Deputy Sheriff John Wiggins sat in his vehicle, lights flashing in the early dawn. He was parked, along with Deputy Brian Gass, in front of the barricade that led to the main street of Lake Wilson. No one knew when they went to bed on Monday, January 12, that a blast would rock their world, throwing much of what Lake Wilson had worked so hard to repair and rebuild after the destruction caused by the tornado of 1992.. Again. Mrs. Everett Von Arb was sound asleep and awoke to the explosion. "I said to Everett, 'You wouldn't think they would pick Lake Wilson to bomb, would they'?" The Von Arb's and all of Lake Wilson and the surrounding area heard and felt the blast which demolished the storage shed sitting next to the fire hall in Lake Wilson and destroyed the fire hall and the equipment inside. The Von Arb's along with many of Lake Wilson residents, looked out their windows and saw, what they later found out, was insulation falling from the sky. "It looked like we were all closed in," Von Arb said. ''There was nothing you could see. Nothing you could do, so we stayed home and let those that had to do their jobs, the fire department emergency crews, do it. They didn't need us looking around, getting in the way." And, she prayed. Prayed that no one was injured. Prayers were answered and it was a miracle that no one was hurt. "That was the most important thing," Sheriff Steve Telkamp said, "No one lost a life." What had happened is still under investigation by a team of fire marshals from the state. They, along with Minnesota Pollution Control and Homeland Security have people looking through the rubble to determine the cause of the explosion. The effect is known. Wiggin's shook his head and stated, "This town has been through a lot." That seemed to be on the mind of many as they surveyed the damage to their town. Lake Wilson's EMT's were on the scene immediately and many of them worked through the night, going from house to house to make sure no one had been injured. It was a concerted effort that came to the rescue when the sound of the explosion vibrated through the country-side. Lennie Carlson and Ronnie Henning, both members of the Lake Wilson Fire Department, were still helping out in the early morning hours, having been on site since the beginning. They were tired, but this was their town. They were willing, along with many others, to go that extra hour to start the process toward tomorrow. "I was in bed," Carlson said. "It was like the worst bolt of lightning you have ever heard." He went first to his basement, where a son sleeps, thinking maybe it was their house. When he realized it wasn't his house, his next thought was, "I thought there must have been a plane crash. I could see the cloud of smoke from my house." He went immediately to the fire hall, where firemen have been trained to head to in the time of crisis. That's when he realized the smoke was coming from the vicinity of the fire hall. LeRoy Reese took charge. The big man, dressed in the protective yellow gear of a fighter, had to take his glasses off and wipe the tears from his face as he tired to express what it feels like to lead men in a situation in your own backyard. There have been many sessions when the departments have come together for training. Each year Murray County holds a training for all emergency personnel, but no one likes to think of putting the practice into action. "Everyone just showed up," is how Reese begins his explanation of the boom that shook his town. "The call for Mutual Aid was paged out at 11:15," Reese said, reliving his nightmare. "Most of our men had already headed out though, because of the blast. They even heard it in Fulda!" Reese's house was damaged too even though he lives a block and one-half from the core of the damage. "I had windows blown out and the house was moved off the foundation," he said. "Chandler, Slayton, Dovray, Iona, they all came. We had paged out Fulda at first but then called them back to tell them to stay in case we would need a crew in another part of the county," Reese continued, the emotion of the event clearly evident in his eyes, his voice breaking at times. Seeing the utter destruction to the fire hall the men and women of Lake Wilson were so proud of was difficult for this strong man. Sheriff Steve Telkamp looked a little bleary eyed, after 40 minutes of sleep. He had been in bed a short time when his wife woke him up. "She heard the blast. Right after that the phone rang so I knew something had happened," he said. "My initial reaction was to get over here (Lake Wilson) and to find out exactly what was going on." When he arrived, he too thought back to the destructive forces that had tried to level this town in 1992. "It's just terrible," he said, at a loss to describe his feelings for the people of Lake Wilson. The first action taken by Telkamp was to shut the town down. "We had a crew going door to door searching, we had XCEL come in to turn the power off. "Everyone was fabulous," Telkamp continued. "Everyone has worked so well together, they were organized and everything went according to plan. Our top priority was to make sure the people were safe." An example of people far and near working together was the help that started arriving immediately. Slayton Building Supply brought in a supply of plywood and started to board up windows. Faye Schuur and her husband, Curt, survivors of the 1992 tornado, hopped in their car and followed the Chandler fire trucks to Lake Wilson. With them they brought sandwiches, cookies and hot coffee for the emergency crews hard at work. A temporary Red Cross station was set up in the basement of St. Mary's Catholic Church. Working in the cold and dark, without electricity or heat, men and women volunteers were preparing coffee and getting ready to make sandwiches for those in need. Flashlights guided their way until they could get a generator set up. Telkamp said with emotion, "This community came together, friends assisting, neighbors helping." Neighbors helping neighbors. Chandler Mayor, Ed Stoel, also a member of the Chandler Fire Department, stood outside St. Mary's and said, "Things were going so well for them, the way things were looking..." Yes they were, a new fire hall, city owned apartments, a new fire truck, new homes and homes newly remodeled. Lake Wilson was looking toward a brighter future. With their resiliency, they will continue to look toward that same future. There is spunk and determination in Lake Wilson residents. They were beat once and came back. They will again. Dorothy Blomendaal, attending a shortened county commissioner meeting on Tuesday, January 13, said Jim Reinert is working on getting a Presidential Declaration of Disaster. Missing from the meeting was Commissioner Keven Anderson who represents the District 5, which Lake Wilson is a part of. Jon Blomendaal, Ag and Solid Waste Administrator suggested the board waive the fee for the demolition debris and the board voted in favor of the waiver. |
©Fulda Free Press 2010