In the moments before 23 people were injured in a major explosive blast at a Plantation shopping center, the smell of gas was so strong one employee was on the phone with the gas company.
“I’m sure they heard everything,” Hiep “Chef Mo" Van said Sunday. “Everything was falling. Metal, plates, pots.”
The day after the explosion, business owners wept at the plaza’s fenced perimeter, all but four of the 19 who went to hospitals were released, a steady parade of gawkers snaked by to survey the damage for themselves and the Morgan & Morgan law firm announced it had been hired by a 37-year-old working mother who was hurt in the blast.
Nobody died, nobody’s injuries were considered life-threatening and a search of the area was completed, authorities said.
Van was still recovering on Sunday from bruised limbs, a sore head, tight chest and a ringing and hurting right ear that prompted him to go to an urgent care clinic.
There was no confirmation Sunday on the cause of the explosion that went off at 11:28 a.m. Saturday. The blast obliterated a defunct pizza shop at the north end of the Market on University, 1041 S. University Drive.
“We don’t know for sure,” Deputy Chief Joel Gordon, spokesman for Plantation Fire Rescue said. “We haven’t confirmed the source of the explosion."
The investigation into the origins of the explosion would likely stretch for weeks, he said.
A prepared statement from Teco said technicians immediately went to the scene.
“Technicians found no natural gas leaks, and they shut off natural gas service to the area as a precaution,” a spokeswoman said.
One of the people who was hurt was rushed to the hospital as a trauma alert but was in stable condition by Sunday, Plantation Mayor Lynn Stoner said.
Of the 14 injured people taken to Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, 13 of them were discharged Saturday.
“They were all in good condition,” hospital spokeswoman Jenny Mackie said. The one remaining patient also was in good condition, she said.
The city of Plantation will host a group crisis intervention at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in partnership with The Florida Crisis Response Team. The meeting will be at Plantation Central Park, 9151 NW Second St.
Plantation Police on Sunday met with people looking to retrieve vehicles and valuables at the parking lot of the Charles Schwab building at 1179 S. University Drive.
They will return to that spot Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tow trucks on Sunday removed some of the smashed and dented cars.
The blast tore into Sharif Mohamed’s BMW and shattered the windshield.
“Material things can be replaced,” a grateful Mohamed said when he went to pick up the car Sunday. “As long as you’re safe.”
He and his wife were working out at an adjacent LA Fitness when the explosion hit.
“The windows were blown out. The ceiling was crumbling down on us ... She was yelling my name. I was yelling her name,” he said.
They found each other and ran outside to see what was left of the nearby restaurant that appeared to be the origin of the explosion.
“You’d think a missile hit it,” Mohamed said.
Debris and shrapnel shot northward and westward. Pieces of metal, large and small, littered the surrounding parking lots. Shredded pink insulation was strewn far and wide.
The center of the mysterious blow up appeared to be a defunct restaurant, Pizzafire.
Teco representatives were on site Sunday along with fire investigators from the city’s police and fire departments, the state Fire Marshal, the Broward Sheriff’s bomb squad and arson team, the FBI, personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Sunrise hazardous materials crew, officials said.
A number of nearby properties were severely damaged, some structurally so.
Businesses to the north at the Fountains Mall might be able to reopen in the next day or so after debris was cleared, Gordon said.
But businesses next to the explosion, like the pho restaurant and Presto Dry Cleaners, likely won’t reopen “for quite a while” because of damage to supporting columns, walls, ceilings and the roof, he said.
“There’s no way to tell how long it will take. They have to dig through the rubble," Gordon said. “Our goal is to return to normal as rapidly as possible."
Hemi Patel, 44, owner of Presto Dry Cleaners, arrived with her father and husband as police began escorting merchants to their businesses to retrieve personal belongings and automobiles.
Patel said she did not know how long her dry cleaning business would have to be closed, but it is the family’s “bread and butter.”
Patel said she had noticed the odor of gas before the gigantic boom hit.
She began to cry as she recounted the blast, which occurred while she was inside her shop.
"I can’t explain it,” she said. “It was like a bomb went off. Things just started falling.”
Patel ran out the door. “We didn’t know if it was a bomb. We didn’t know if there would be another explosion,” she said.
Many made pilgrimages to the destroyed property on Sunday to take photos or videos.
Janelle Reynolds traveled from Miami Gardens to see with her own eyes the devastation she missed at a plaza she routinely visits.
“I took the bus to come see this,” she said, feeling gratitude. “I had to.”
At least two people came to view Premo dry cleaners, where they had dropped their clothing. One man just wanted confirmation it was still standing, with the clothes inside. It was.
A crew of Zona Fresca employees waited outside Sunday hoping to be allowed in to start cleaning up.
Zona Fresca is in a detached strip building on the southwest corner of the plaza.
The building shook, a window shattered, ceiling tiles fell and $5,000 worth of refrigerated food was spoiled, said shift manager Dennis Cabrera.
"We’re just grateful,” he said. “Property damage, whatever. It could’ve been worse. There could’ve been a lot of loss of life.”
When the explosion blew up there was just one customer at Zona Fresca, Cabrera said.
“Actually, after everything, he sat there and finished his burrito."
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