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芝加哥的Ford City Mall昨晚發生爆炸。今天看到新聞後嚇了一跳。因為原本昨晚的七點多打算到那去買些東西，而如果真的去了，那人或者是車子就可能遇到那爆炸。昨晚後來因為覺得離mall關門的時間不遠了，因此想說這週末再去好了，沒想到躲過了可能遇到的一劫。幸好該事件只有十人受傷，無人死亡。

7:03 離開International Club，上I-55
7:05 改變心意，回實驗室
8:30 Ford City Mall停車場天然氣地下管線發生爆炸
10:00 天然氣關閉

照片為NBC新聞網頁的照片
http://www.nbc6.net/slideshow/4077727/detail.html?qs=;s=10;w=320

該事件的新聞轉貼如下：
http://www.nbc6.net/news/4077864/detail.html
Explosion Rips Through Chicago Mall
Firefighters Identify Natural Gas As Cause Of Explosion

POSTED: 9:47 pm EST January 12, 2005
UPDATED: 1:56 am EST January 13, 2005

CHICAGO -- An explosion was reported Wednesday night in the parking lot of a mall on Chicago's South Side.

Images: Explosion Rips Through Ford City Mall

Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said in a television report that about 10 people were injured in the blast at the Ford City Mall.

Three of the injured were taken to a hospital in serious condition, three were in fair condition and four were in good condition, according to the fire department.

Chicago Police Officer Karen Jefferson said she was off duty when she and her sister, Melissa Williams, parked their car at the mall. A moment later, the explosion occurred. The two women said they were about 10 feet from the explosion and saw the windows of a pizza restaurant and an Old Country Buffet blow out from the force. Jefferson said the blast left a crater in the pavement and cars were flipped.

The officer said that she saw people trapped under cars and sections of pavement, and the explosion was "like pieces of the parking lot were raining."

Police spokesman Carlos Herrera said the explosion occurred in the lot near a Pearle Vision store at the mall. Ford City was evacuated shortly after the blast.

The explosion appeared to have been from an underground natural gas line, Langford said. He added that broken glass and other debris was strewn 150 feet from the restaurant parking lot.

Langford said a dozen vehicles were damaged, and some were overturned.

"A piece of the gas main flew through the air and came down through one of the buildings here," Langford said.

Reports indicated a 20-inch main was damaged in the blast. A local energy company capped the main late Wednesday night.

Gas had been shut off at the site by 10:30 p.m., Langford said.

The gas company was investigating the cause of the explosion.

A spokeswoman for Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications said only Ford City management officials would be allowed to enter the mall until further notice.

Witnesses Describe Blast

Sheena Blandon, 17, of Riverdale, said she was in the mall when a "couple of cars exploded" near its entrance. As Blandon was evacuated she smelled what seemed to be gas and saw cars overturned in parking lot near the mall entrance.

"It felt like the whole mall shook," Blandon said.

One woman who was inside the mall said the blast caused a lot of damage.

"I was inside the mall and we were shopping there, and we heard the big explosion, which happened at about 8:30 (p.m.). Everybody ran outside the mall, the alarm went off," the woman said. "There's about 100 square feet that's blowed up."

Witnesses said several cars were overturned by the force of the blast.

"We came outside and there were cars on top of cars," one witness said.

Brianne Fondren said that when she was evacuated from the mall after the explosion, she saw the parking lot "come up" from the force and several cars were "totaled." At 10 p.m. Fondren was still looking for her Pontiac Bonneville, which she had parked near the mall.

"It's a bad sight," she said, "it's a bad sight."

Teragus Lauderdale was also inside the mall when the explosion happened.

"I was in the mall when the gas line had blew up," he said. "I seen a whole crowd of people just running toward my way ... about two or three minutes later, I started smelling gas just fill up the whole mall."

Lauderdale said he rushed outside and saw the full extent of the damage.

"I went outside to check it out and the parking lot where my car was was gone," he said. "It's a hole over there where my car used to be."

Yoshika Baker, 24, of Plainfield, was shopping when she heard a "loud bang" and saw the lights go off in the mall. Baker said everyone in the mall started running, and people who were in the parking lot were scattering.

"I live about 11 blocks away from Ford City, and I heard this loud bang," witness Alme Rios said. "We actually thought a car had crashed into our building, because it was that powerful."

A Hodgkins, Ill., resident said he heard "the rumble" in his suburb.

Chicago television station WMAQ reported that eight people were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Many of them were apparently hurt by flying glass while dining at the Old Country Buffet restaurant in the mall. Several windows in the restaurant were blown out when the explosion occurred.

Two adults and a child were in fair to good condition and would likely be released Wednesday night, according to one hospital's taped recording on the explosion victims.