Thirty-Three Homes to Be Demolished, After Indiana Neighborhood Blast - East Idaho News
National News

Thirty-Three Homes to Be Demolished, After Indiana Neighborhood Blast

  Published at

Getty N 112212 PoliceLine?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1353617300697Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(INDIANAPOLIS) — Thirty-three homes damaged in a house explosion this month will be razed, officials in Indianapolis said.

The blast that rocked the Richmond Hill subdivision killed two people, John and Jennifer Longworth. Dozens of homes also took a hit.

City officials this week said that of the 37 houses that were boarded up after the Nov. 10 incident, four appeared to be repairable, according to the Indianapolis Star-Tribune.

“They are a hazard,” Adam Collins, a city code enforcement officer, told the Star-Tribune. “They are 15 feet apart, and you can’t let them stand there for months on end. Some are already deteriorating.”

Officials have yet to determine the cause of the explosion but it is being investigated as a crime.

Much of the attention has been focused on the residents of the home at the center of the blast.

The homeowners of the 33 homes scheduled for demolition are being allowed to get the possessions that were undamaged by the blast.

The first six homes – the closest to the site of the explosion – are scheduled for demolition Monday.  Six will be torn down Dec. 3 and 17 others will be bulldozed Dec. 20. Collins, however, said that the owners of the 17 had until that date to repair their homes, although he said he doubts that they will.

The remaining four homes are close to the home at the center of the blast and being considered as evidence in the probe.

Investigators Wednesday said they’d made a break in their probe and had questioned “individuals we have identified as potentially having relevant information.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION