Boodles is Da Bomb...

At 8:15 this morning, one of our favorite restaurants in town had a major gas leak and exploded. It was completely flattened and the explosion and ensuing fire took out about half a block of our historic downtown. One person is reported missing but there have been no other injuries or fatalities reported so far.

As you can imagine, this has a huge impact on a small town like this. Boodles, the Rockin R Bar, Montana Trails Gallery, Starky's Deli and Lily Lu's have all been destroyed. It is a miracle that so far, no one has died. These are business that are so much a part of our every day life. I have spent many an evening at the R Bar, it is where Henry and I ran into each other for the first time outside of the bank and he asked me out. Boodles is where we went on our first date and where I had my bachelorette party.

Up until three weeks ago, we lived about 6 blocks away from where this happened. This is a huge loss to our community and will effect us for a long time. Not only have we lost businesses that are dear to us, but those buildings were built in the late 1800's. In my opinion, Bozeman has one of the prettiest and quaintest downtown areas I have ever been to and this will change the face of it forever. I can only be thankful that it happened at a time when most people weren't at work yet in those buildings and that so far we only have one person missing. I really hope that person is found safe and sound so their loved ones can stop worrying.

It has been amazing to see the community pull together - within hours there were announcements on the radio that Home Depot had volunteered materials to help make the area safe. Local construction companies were saying to call them and they would go down and board up windows and make any other immediate repairs to the other businesses that were effected. Windows were blown out for blocks.

Here are some pictures...

This is what used to be the front of Boodles.

This is a view from the alley behind it - I could see this plume of smoke from my office for most of the day.

This is a view from the east - I lived about 5 blocks from where this picture was taken.

So please take a moment to spare a thought for the family of that missing person and for those who have lost their livelihoods.

I look forward to the day in the not too distant future when they rebuild these businesses and I can go support this community!

Hooray!

We have internet now!
Updates to follow - I stayed up much too late last night and I need to go nap.