Danvers blast video shows residents' narrow escape
By Globe Staff
The enormous fireball erupted high into the night sky, sending flames above the trees and homes in Danversport. Shards of flying glass shot into the bedroom of David Marcou on Bates Street, striking him in the back of the neck as he slept. The blast blew the frame from his sliding glass door out of the wall and impaled it in the ceiling above his bed.
“I just remember being on my feet and looking around and thinking, ‘Wow, it’s really windy in this room,’” said Marcou, sitting on a front stoop in a video interview with federal investigators. “All I could see was fire in front of me. It was so hot and intense that I could feel it right on my face.”
Marcou escaped that night with only cuts and bruises, protected in part from the flying glass by the heavy comforter he pulled over himself that cold evening. An 11-minute video released today by the US Chemical Safety Board underscores how fortunate it was that Marcou and other Danversport residents were not killed in the factory explosion on Nov. 22, 2006.
The video posted above includes actual footage of the fire; audio recordings of 911 calls; computer simulations of the blast that upended the bedroom of Marcou and others; interviews with local residents; and a step-by-step reenactment of what caused the blast. Be patient, the video may take a few moments to load.
