PLANTATION, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities are asking the owners of stricken vehicles at a Plantation shopping center to pick up their cars from the parking lot as the deadline to collect them creeps closer.
Twenty-three people were injured after a possible gas explosion at Market on University along the 800 block of South University Drive, Saturday.
Erick Leon, who owns Code Ninjas, a coding school, was emotional as he walked through the remains of the family business, Monday morning.
“I couldn’t make anything out in there,” he said. “Nothing in there is recognizable. I was looking around through the building into the Fountains, which is the shopping center behind us. I just couldn’t believe that it is all gone now. As we got closer and closer, I really started to feel the magnitude of what had occurred there.”
Luckily, around 40 students of the school were not in class because of the holiday weekend. The sign could be seen laying on the ground amid the rubble.
“We’re just so thankful that that sign was posted on our center office desk and doors,” Leon said.
“Our sign’s on the ground,” Traci Leon said. “We couldn’t pick it up or touch anything, but they escorted us, and we got as close as we could.”
7News cameras also got a better look at what investigators are calling the core of the blast zone and the ruins of the once bustling shopping center.
“This is where they’ve sort of centered on and focused on as to the origination of the blast itself,” Plantation Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Joel Gordon said. “What they’re gonna do now is they’re gonna start digging through the rubble and trying to get in to find the origin of that blast.”
Local, state and federal investigators have worked from the outside-in to search for the cause. However, there could be a clue.
“I mean, I did smell gas, but because right next to Mr. Pho — the Pho Brothers — I said something to them,” witness Graig Foulks said.
TECO, one of the gas providers in the area, said they did receive a call regarding the smell of gas.
“Now, just a few minutes before the explosion on Saturday, we received a call from a nearby restaurant,” TECO spokesperson Cheri Jacobs said. “He reported to us that he smelled gas inside his establishment, and we were in the process of dispatching a technician to investigate that smell of gas when the explosion occurred.”
Fire officials said it is too soon to make that determination, leaving business owners like Leon waiting.
“Our next step is to talk to our property manager and try to figure out where we go from here,” Leon said.
Monday night, the Leons talked to their property manager, but their questions continue to pile up.
“From what we gathered today is they don’t know very much,” Leon said. “They haven’t really had access to the site yet. They didn’t have any timelines for us or anything like that today.”
Investigators said it could take them weeks to find the cause and open the plaza to the property manager, which has put a lot of stress on small business owners.
The city of Plantation as well as the chamber of commerce are stepping in to help the affected businesses.
However, the debris-filled parking lot remains packed with damaged vehicles. While many cars cannot be driven away, the deadline approaches to have them towed from the scene.
A steady stream of people could be seen coming to pick up their vehicles from the parking lot of the shopping center. Those that do not retrieve their vehicles by Monday afternoon will have to pick up their car from another location.
7News cameras captured some cars being towed from the parking lot two days after a blast rocked the shopping center, which scattered debris.
“The windshield is completely cracked,” Sandra Kahn said. “I’m not going to be able to drive it.”
Diego Perez runs a smoothie shop inside the L.A. Fitness.
“I can’t believe that has happened,” Perez said. “What are the chances of an explosion and hitting the building and doing that?”
He was allowed to collect his cash box, but there’s no telling when he may reopen.
“There’s damage, but it’s replaceable. It’s redoable,” Perez said.
One of Perez’s employees returned to pick up her car with her mother, Monday.
“I was actually very emotional,” she said, “because I was in the store at the time because that’s where I work — the Tropical Smoothie — and it went through a lot of damage.”
Others, however, were unable to collect their belongings.
“I need all my files,” Genevieve Manzoni said. “I need to get to them to tell them where we’re going, so it would’ve been nice to have it, but they said no one is going upstairs just yet.”
Some were emotional as they returned to the scene. Seeing the damage served as a reminder of the chaos on Saturday.
“We felt the ground shake, and the ceiling just fell down. It was falling down,” witness Jassodra Dhanpat said.
“Everything just caved in,” witness Philip Aleong said. “Water went everywhere. Dust. Glass was shattered. It felt like hell.”
Whether they were back to find a car to simply drive away or watch it leave on a tow truck, there is one thing everyone has in common: they’re feeling grateful.
“It’s amazing,” a witness said. “It’s where everybody was really lucky.”
“It’s really a blessing,” Kahn said. “I mean, it really is a blessing that no one got severely hurt.”
Most of the damaged cars have since been towed away either by the cars’ owners or Plantation Police.
Plantation Police ended their Monday operation at around 5 p.m.
If a car is driveable and does not have to be towed away, owners can still retrieve it Tuesday starting at 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
The Florida Crisis Response Team will be hosting a group crisis intervention. It will be held at Central Park, at 9151 NW 2nd St. in Plantation, at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday.
The meeting is for any members of the community impacted by the explosion. Children are also welcome.
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