Irving was awake long before I was on Monday morning. He often reads or uses ear buds and listens to the radio until I awaken. He had been listening to the 6:00 am news and not too long afterward felt and heard a deep, dull thud. At first he thought it might be the roof rafters booming, as they tend to do on occasion when the temperature is really low on freezing-cold nights. But this wasn't a freezing-cold night, and dawn was breaking. Sometimes when a heavy load of accumulated show hangs over the house roof and mild enough weather untethers it so it falls below, there can be a hollow, hard and loud thud. 

When I awoke he mentioned it to me. It didn't occur that it might be an explosion, but that's just what it was. Many years ago when we were living in our first house in Richmond Hill early in our marriage, we were sitting in our living room before going to bed and suddenly felt and heard a huge, loud whomp! It was a summer evening, the windows were open, and the curtains flew up to the ceiling as air rushed in, and we wondered if the area was under attack.

Damage is seen following an early morning gas leak explosion in the Orleans area of Ottawa, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. Officials say 12 people were injured in a gas explosion that rocked an east Ottawa suburb on Monday morning, including two children and two people who were pulled out of the rubble. (Spencer Colby/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

We soon enough learned there had been a huge gas leak and an explosion had occurred. We were miles from the blast site, but it was so powerful that it resonated quite a distance. I believe it took place at a gas plant itself, and that one person was killed and other wounded. That was more than fifty years ago. When we heard the news a few hours later on Monday morning we learned that this too had been a gas explosion.

It was located about 20 kilometres from where we live, in a new housing development. Four houses under construction were completely demolished, and two construction workers were buried under rubble. One was rescued a half hour after the explosion, but it took hours to rescue the second workers. They, two children and another adult were sent to hospital. Others that sustained injuries were treated at the scene by paramedics.

Apart from the four under-construction houses, other nearby homes sustained damage to roofs, walls, windows, and foundations. No one was seriously hurt in those homes, but the homes will require extensive work before they can be considered safe and habitable. There are a number of families now homeless, using emergency shelters. The unexpected has a way of happening and there is no preparation for it, no prior warning, no solution but to pick up the pieces and get on with life.

Our spate of mild weather days is continuing. We've got a high afternoon temperature of 2C, much warmer than is usual for February. But it's also steadily raining, with no sign it may soon stop, so we're unable to get out with Jackie and Jillie for their usual hike through the forest trails. They don't seem to mind at all. They've made themselves as comfortable as they usually do, all their meal times are arriving on schedule, and they're happy.