St. Patty's Day Explosion

I was running about 10 minutes late today and left the house late to go to work.  It is St. Patrick's Day today and I had to spend a little extra time putting on my fabulous green eye shadow.  My 10 minutes late turned into about 35 minutes late once I was on Interstate 35W.  My sister called me while I was in the car and asked if I was at work yet and I said no and she asked which way I took to work today.  I take three different ways to work, depending on traffic.  I told her 35W and she told me that there was a natural gas explosion on 35W and Hwy 62, which I would be hitting in about 5 miles.  While on 35W, I could see the flames shooting way above the trees down the freeway.  My sister told me that they were shutting down both sides of 35W and 62 in just enough time for me to get off the freeway with virtually no issues. I was able to call my supervisor to tell her I would be late and the reason why and she said she could see the flames from her window at work. I got off at 46th Street and headed west. According to reports on the radio, the explosion was around 60th and Nicollet so I decided to head down Nicollet to see what I could see.  I got down to 58th where I could see tons of people on the streets and police and emergency vehicles blocking off the streets.  I turned and tried to find my way out of the neighborhood but they kept blocking off streets in the area so I kept driving through the area trying to find a main street so I could get to work.  And as always, I had my camera on me.  I took some pictures, all from my car, some with the window up and some with it down.  The smell of gas was in the air (not like rotten eggs, but more like a million grills all going at once) and it was HOT outside.  I could feel the heat from a block away. Amazingly, no one was injured.  The heat caused damage to Cub Foods' sign which was melted.  There were cars in the parking lot that had melted tires, one car was completely melted and a giant hole in the street above the gas line.  If you're interested in more professional pictures, take a look at the photo gallery from the Star Tribune.