Well. Where do I start with this one?
Late last night, an entire block of Eastern Red Sector went up, and I mean up, folks, I'm talking structural-integrity-is-now-a-memory up, after a resident, in his own apartment, attempted what WCS and TERRA investigators are calling "a catastrophic and frankly baffling attempt at unlicensed gas line modification" on his own gas main. His own. Not a shared line, not a building fault, a man, alone, with a wrench and apparently a grudge against WCS Certified Technicians, which, and I've said this before on this very desk, is exactly the kind of corner-cutting that gets towers vitrified.
I actually did my own kitchen wiring once. Different situation entirely. I had a permit.
The resulting blast tore straight through the man's own tower first, and I have to say, folks, there's a lesson in that, there's a real lesson in that, about the nature of consequence, bringing the entire structure down floor by floor. But it didn't stop there. The pressure wave and the resulting fires jumped straight to the neighboring complexes in the block, setting off a chain of secondary explosions across at least three more buildings before WCS and TERRA could even get units on scene. One gas line. One man. Half a block.
I sat with that for a while. In the studio. Alone, mostly, because Denise was on a break.
Preliminary numbers coming in from Withmore City Services are, frankly, staggering. Only four thousand two hundred sixty-four residents have made it through to the cloning vats, and look, that's the system working, that's what the vats are for, no need to panic, chin up, but I have to tell you, and this is the hard part of the job, the part they don't teach you in Gridworks orientation, that seventy-two thousand three hundred and ninty-nine residents are confirmed permanently killed. Gone. No clone. Across an entire block. That number may rise. It probably will. It's the kind of number you sit with.
Eyewitnesses describe a low hum, then what one survivor called "the whole east wall deciding it didn't want to be a wall anymore," followed by structural collapse across multiple towers, one after another, like, and I don't say this lightly, like dominoes, if the dominoes were people's homes. WCS and TERRA are on scene. Genetek has confirmed additional cloning units have been diverted to the area to handle processing volume, which, credit where it's due, is the kind of rapid corporate response that makes you proud to live under a dome. Speaking of domes, have you tried the new dome-roast blend down at Kro's? Not sponsored. I just like it. It's not even real, but if it was, you'd love it too. The power of the news!
WJF has confirmed the man responsible for the original gas line did not survive the initial blast, which investigators are calling, and I quote, "the only mercy in this entire situation." I'm inclined to agree, and I don't say that lightly either.
City Services reminds all residents: report gas irregularities to a licensed technician, not on your own initiative. Withmore City Services can be reached via Gridmail. Do not, and I want to be very clear about this, attempt to fix your own gas main because you watched a tutorial on the Grid. I watched a tutorial once. It was about sourdough. It went fine. This is not the same.
This has been Tom Morrisson, NLM Eyewitness Grid News.
