After a few seconds it seemed like nothing was going to happen, so I went out on my porch. I was wondering what had exploded, but couldn't tell how close or far away the event had been. I thought perhaps the city engineering work in the neighbourhood might have triggered a gas explosion. I couldn't see anything from my porch, so I got dressed, grabbed my camera, and went out to see if I could find out what had happened.

There was a lot of action going on at the far end of Barclay Heritage Park, a block from my apartment, so I wandered down for a look. Firefighters were already in action spraying foam on a burning car. The car looked like it had been peeled open from the inside, and pieces of it were strewn all over. The car's windshield was about 200 feet away from the car. Nobody seemed to know what had happened, but we heard later that an acetylene tank had been left in the car overnight. It had leaked, and when the car was started (remotely) by its owner, a plumber, the gas ignited. Amazingly nobody was seriously injured.

An interesting sidenote for me is that the sidewalk beside the exploded car is the sidewalk I walk to work on almost every day. I was going to walk beside that car about 1 to 1-1/2 hours later. Thankfully the plumber didn't sleep in!

Photographs below:
   Ongoing dousing of the fire
   The windshield
   Windshield parking sticker
   General scene on the street
   The car, foam spray just finished
   The car, one hour later
   Broken glass from nearby buildings
   Later that day, window repairs