As if indies didn't already have it tough
From Publishers Weekly newsline:
Explosion Wrecks Small Indy Indie
An underground explosion that rocked downtown Indianapolis, Ind., Saturday morning has shut a small local bookstore and newsstand owned by eight siblings since 1965. According to Bookland co-owner Concetta DeFabis, the store, founded by her parents in the early 1950s, may never re-open.
"I want to continue, but we have no idea if we'll be able to," she told PW Daily this morning. "We don't know the extent of the damage. We have no access. We don't know if the building is structurally damaged. All we know is that it's under investigation."
Saturday's explosion was one of three blasts that have rattled downtown Indianapolis buildings in the past nine days, according to news reports. Indiana Power & Light officials and the city's fire department suspect that the explosions were caused by heavy rains and subsequent freezing and thawing that may have short-circuited underground utility lines.
Saturday's explosion caused Bookland's 3-in. concrete floor to buckle into jagged mounds. A steel door at the rear of the store was blown off its hinges and bent in the middle. The blast also ignited a fire in the basement, where the store office was located. "Our office doesn't exist anymore," DeFabis said.
Two store employees and a customer were injured in the blast seriously enough to be hospitalized. "They literally crawled out of the building," DeFabis said. "They didn't know what had happened. They didn't know if it was terrorism. They're still suffering from the trauma.
"That everyone made it out alive is in itself a miracle," she continued. "But to see my livelihood destroyed . . . it's heartwrenching."--Claire Kirch
Explosion Wrecks Small Indy Indie
An underground explosion that rocked downtown Indianapolis, Ind., Saturday morning has shut a small local bookstore and newsstand owned by eight siblings since 1965. According to Bookland co-owner Concetta DeFabis, the store, founded by her parents in the early 1950s, may never re-open.
"I want to continue, but we have no idea if we'll be able to," she told PW Daily this morning. "We don't know the extent of the damage. We have no access. We don't know if the building is structurally damaged. All we know is that it's under investigation."
Saturday's explosion was one of three blasts that have rattled downtown Indianapolis buildings in the past nine days, according to news reports. Indiana Power & Light officials and the city's fire department suspect that the explosions were caused by heavy rains and subsequent freezing and thawing that may have short-circuited underground utility lines.
Saturday's explosion caused Bookland's 3-in. concrete floor to buckle into jagged mounds. A steel door at the rear of the store was blown off its hinges and bent in the middle. The blast also ignited a fire in the basement, where the store office was located. "Our office doesn't exist anymore," DeFabis said.
Two store employees and a customer were injured in the blast seriously enough to be hospitalized. "They literally crawled out of the building," DeFabis said. "They didn't know what had happened. They didn't know if it was terrorism. They're still suffering from the trauma.
"That everyone made it out alive is in itself a miracle," she continued. "But to see my livelihood destroyed . . . it's heartwrenching."--Claire Kirch
posted by All4Word at 11:00 PM
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