Gas Power Plant Explosion In Connecticut

A power plant in Connecticut exploded going through a test run today, killing at least two:

The plant was under construction and had not opened, Middletown Officer Kevin White told CNN. It was set to go online later this year, he said, and was in a "testing phase."

People up to 20 miles away reported hearing or feeling the blast.

"It felt like the house was shaking," Peter Moore, who lives about 10 miles away in Durham, told CNN. He said he thought at first there had been a traffic accident on his street or there was a problem with his house. "It was really big," he said.

Moore said his mother, who lives in Woodbridge, about 20 miles away from the plant, also said she heard the explosion, and said it "sounded like someone pounded on the back door a couple of times."

"It was almost like an earthquake," nearby resident Lynn Townsend told CNN affiliate WTNH. She said she heard the explosion and went outside to see "a very big, bright orange flame" between the plant's two smokestacks, and immediately dialed 9-1-1.

"It really shook the house," she said. "Everybody was scared. The kids started to cry."

Bernadette Nyland told WTNH she was in her yard when the explosion occurred.

"They were doing the firing of the engines this morning and so something went wrong and it blew up and flames came shooting up almost as tall as that stack," she told the station. 

Hoping this isn't as bad as it appears to be.  It also goes to show you that infrastructure is important in this country, and sources of power other than fossil fuels and nuclear are generally less prone to explode.