Not a stretch at all. I'd say that would be scary, especially if your house was right on the edge of the evacuation point. I've often wondered about that. If you were right on the edge of the evacuation point for something like a chemical spill or say, a hurricane. Would you stay? Even if I were twenty miles outside of it I would likely evacuate my home. Maybe I'm just overly cautious. Glad it all turned out well.
It was a little scary, ended up being pretty tame, but I was concerned a bit too. About myself, my wife, my cats, and my home. I was actually bullshitting with the cop about beer when the explosion happened. I asked if we should be worried or go inside or leave, and all he said was "I've heard bigger explosions... you don't see any fire do you? I think we're good." and then went back to talking about local imperial stouts he enjoys. Chlorine mixed with some Algaecide chemical, and then that started burning/corroding and eating away everything it touched I guess, and it eventually got to a small gas can in the dudes garage which was the explosion we heard. Fire department was already there, and we later found out it was intentional because no fire fighter wanted to go in the garage as they saw the gas can melting, so they poked it with a robot or something to detonate it, then hosed the whole thing down with some type of dry chemical because you can't use water in chemical fires I guess. The rest of the day was mostly just cleanup, and keeping people away from the fumes and what-not while it cooled and they could get the right people to clean it. Was an interesting day in my quiet little part of the burbs. Two weeks later, we had a huge storm in my neighborhood. A large oak tree fell on this same guys garage and crushed it and both his cars... just after he got done repairing it from the chemical incident. Wish I had pictures of the storm damage and hail we got. Now that wasn't scary, it was terrifying. Didn't take any pictures because I was hiding in my basement shaking. :)
That poor guy. I guess, when it rains it pours.. or in his case, hails and downs a tree on your garage. But really, what are the chances of your garage being destroyed to that level twice within two weeks? Crazy.
He had a pretty good sense of humor about it, oddly refreshing.
I guess at that point all you can do is laugh really, right? Thanks for sharing.