Well, I've exhausted most resources as far as people to ask about it, except for a few people I know in the military, and asking them
about it is pointless. (Thinking they can say anything is wishful thinking.)
Here is the latest from this mornings search:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20121113/NEWS/121113028/Owner-home-believed-source-explosion-talks-m-shock-like-everybody-else-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Indianapolis%20News
9:37 PM, Nov 13, 2012
Monseratte Shirley was at a casino bar in Lawrenceburg on Saturday night when she answered her cellphone.
It was her neighbor.
“I’m glad you answered the phone. I’m glad you’re alive. We were looking for your body. There’s been an explosion.”
“What do you mean there was an explosion?” Shirley said Tuesday, recounting the conversation. “I’m going home.”
“You don’t have a home. Your home is gone.”
From that moment on, things have been miserable for the 47-year-old nurse whose home is believed to have been the epicenter of Saturday’s blast on Indianapolis’ Southeastside. The explosion and subsequent fires damaged nearly 80 homes, demolishing five. Shirley’s next-door neighbors, John “Dion” Longworth, 34, and his wife, Jennifer, 36, died in the blast.
Speaking to reporters inside her attorney’s Indianapolis office, she said that since Saturday she has been interviewed by detectives, hounded by reporters and has had to get legal advice. Having earlier denied interview requests, she said Tuesday it was time to go public to dispel rumors that somehow she was responsible for the blast.
“Everybody’s pointing a finger at me like I did something wrong,” she said, each word a struggle as she sobbed. “I mean, I’m totally devastated like my neighbors are.”
The investigation into the explosion remained under way Tuesday, and an official cause has not been released. But utility officials announced they had ruled out at least one possible cause: leaking gas lines.
Citizens Energy Group spokeswoman Sarah Holsapple said Tuesday evening that tests found no evidence of natural gas leaks from any of the utility’s underground lines in the Richmond Hill subdivision, including those that provide gas to Shirley’s home. The findings were confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board, which concluded its investigation on Tuesday. The federal agency investigates accidents with the nation’s fuel supply lines.
Now, investigators are focusing on gas appliances inside the three homes that were leveled.
“Our investigators believe natural gas is involved,” Indianapolis Division of Homeland Security Chief Gary Coons said in a statement. “They are currently in the process of recovering the appliances from destroyed homes to help determine the cause.”
Shirley said she has no idea why her house might have exploded, and she denied assertions her ex-husband, John Shirley, made Monday that the home’s furnace was malfunctioning and the likely cause of the blast.
She said that several weeks ago, she, her live-in boyfriend, Mark Leonard, and her 12-year-old daughter, Brooke, left their home and stayed in a hotel because the home’s heat wouldn’t turn on. Shirley said the thermostat was replaced and the heat was restored.
She said there haven’t been any other gas-related issues since she lived in the house.
“I don’t know why he made that comment,” Monseratte Shirley said.
Meanwhile, she said she hasn’t gone back to see the damage. She tried to early Sunday morning but only got as far as the elementary school where the evacuees were being sent after the blast. She has been living in a motel.
She said her neighbors tell her there is nothing to go back to see even if she wanted to go back.
All she owns now is what she was wearing Tuesday — a dark sweatshirt with a pink hood, jeans and boots — and two changes of clothes she had packed for her trip. Gone are her family photos, her daughter’s precious teddy bear.
She said the situation has “devastated” her daughter. “We can’t even sleep. … I lost it all. I don’t have nothing.”
Still, Shirley says she is both grateful that she and her daughter weren’t home when the blast occurred and sad for what happened to others.
“It’s horrible what happened, you know?” she said. “It’s not just me. It’s everybody. If I was in the house, I would be dead today.”
She said she and Leonard left Friday night to visit the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg and had planned to be away until Sunday. Brooke was staying with a friend. Shirley said she had boarded her cat, Snowball, something she said she always does when she goes away because the cat has anxiety problems and gets sick when left alone.
Page 3 of 3)
Shirley said she has spoken with fire investigators and has no idea what caused the explosion.
The stress from losing everything she owned and knowing the blast caused so much damage has forced her to take anti-anxiety medication, and she doesn’t sleep, she said. She has not been back to the intensive care unit at Community Hospital South where she works.
“I’m glad I’m alive and that my daughter’s alive,” she said.
But sometimes she doesn’t feel like she deserves it.
“Sometimes I wish I was there,” she said.
Shirley said she had a very close relationship with some of her neighbors, who helped her out when she was going through her divorce.
She did not know the Longworths well, she said, but they frequently said hello to each other.
Shirley said that she didn’t believe anyone intentionally caused the blast, nor does she think anyone would try to hurt her or her family.
“I’m just sad, and I mean it’s horrible for everybody in my neighborhood, all the suffering. Everybody has been good neighbors.”
Note: bold, italics added.
There is a video interview with Shirley at the bottom of this article, I have not watched it yet.
