Did you hear about the big natural gas explosion in downtown Bozeman today?

 

Sure did! Everyone has by now I think!
Montana's News Station - Fair. Accurate. To the Point. -UPDATE: Local emergency declared in Bozeman; one unaccounted for

Sad to see the R Bar and Boodles get damaged, and Lily Lu and The Legion and the carpet store!


Here's some photos my good friend Rusty took.
All photos Copyright Rusty Wolanski, 2009.

 

Crazy thing to have happen. And yes, I think everyone knows by now. My mom even called me this afternoon (she lives in Miles City) to ask me about it.

You know, if it was the old R Bar I might miss it, but being that it was the new, yuppified version, it doesn't bother me at all. However, I will miss having the occasional Salt & Pepper Martini from Boodles (hey, when I go yuppie I go all the way).

 

Yeah, it was quite a scene...

 

Yeah I'm glad it didn't happen at a different time! We were planning on having dinner with a bunch of friends across the street last night too, then they were all gonna head to The R Bar (Right next to the building that blew up.)

The debris in the trees is crazy!

This makes me worry about my fiance though, she works a few blocks down in another ancient building that probably has old gas lines and not new ones.

And dang man, when you go yuppie you do go all the way haha.

 

I was trying to find information about a fuel tanker that exploded near Mr. Clean's house near Four Corners just outside of Bozeman. I found your blog and comments about the natural gas explosion in Bozeman. I thought perhaps some of you might be familiar with this one. It happened in 1960 +/-

My friend Doug Boylan was driving a stock truck back to his ranch with his new Black Angus bull in the back. He stopped at the stop sign. There was a double rigged fuel tanker behind him. The brakes on the trailer was not hooked up or was working improperly and he ran into the back of Doug's truck. The Bull hit the pavement and was totally ticked off. He went straight through the fence and proceeded to tear down fence--they found him six miles away, still alive and still ticked. There was a picture in the front page of the Bozeman Chronicle and it looked like an atomic bomb blast--huge mushroom. Mr. Clean's yard was soaked with fuel and the trucking company had to replace all the top soil etc around his house (probably a quarter of an acre or so) and I believe had to dig down twelve feet +/-. Mr. Clean was not a happy camper. Any info or pictures would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Wow, thats way before my time, lol. You may want to post in a more frequented forum as the traffic in here has been slow of late. I will ask around and see what I can find.