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In Pennsylvania: Explosion, Fire Leave Six Missing; Hundreds Evacuated

A fire rages out of control early today (Feb. 10, 2011) after an explosion in Allentown, Pa.
Rich Schultz
/
AP
A fire rages out of control early today (Feb. 10, 2011) after an explosion in Allentown, Pa.

"Six people are missing after a thunderous gas explosion demolished two center city Allentown [Pa.] row homes late Wednesday night and set six neighboring houses ablaze, injuring several residents and forcing more than 600 people from the surrounding city blocks and the Gross Towers senior apartment complex," the local Morning Call reports.

The Associated Press adds that:

"The blast was so powerful that it sent a flat-screen computer monitor sailing into the back of Antonio Arroyo, whose house was on the opposite end of the row from the house that exploded. 'I thought we were under attack,' he recalled from a shelter where some 250 people took refuge in the hours after the blast. Arroyo and his wife, Jill, both 43, lost their home in the fire."

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