House Explosion in North Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we need to breathe a collective sigh of relief that this person likely only hurt himself. This seems like the kind of person who would commit something on a mass scale that would have been MUCH MUCH worse. Society sitting around and doing nothing, allow these kind of sick people to accumulate so many dangerous weapons and harass people, but label it a mental health crisis, creat this.

I watched a paranoid schizophrenic kill someone he claimed was reading his mind. All the signs were there, prior outbursts, accumulating weapons, multiple threats. Yet no one did anything. That was 30 years ago.nothing changes. Thank god he didn’t take his angst up to Ballston Mall or the elementary school.

You’re right. As horrible as it was, it could have been 100x worse.

[Anonymous]

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Is the family ok that shares the duplex with him? I can’t watch news with my kids close by

No injuries reported per ARLnow. I think I saw somewhere that the neighbors had been evacuated before the explosion.

My friend lives right by this-she confirmed that the other side of the duplex had been evacuated to a neighbors house. They are ok.

I’m glad they are ok. I kept staring at their snowman inflatable on their side of the duplex when the whole thing exploded. Can you imagine. One day, you’re decorating for Christmas. The next day, the deranged person who lives next to you blows up his house and yours.

This. All your stuff, POOF. It sucks. Insurance almost never covers enough to rebuild. It's so traumatic for those kids!

How do you even rebuild a duplex? Insurance only covers your side. How do you coordinate with whoever has title now with the mentally ill guy’s half (assuming he’s dead)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

It was a duplex. Two separate units in that brick structure that from a distance looks like a SFH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the family ok that shares the duplex with him? I can’t watch news with my kids close by

No injuries reported per ARLnow. I think I saw somewhere that the neighbors had been evacuated before the explosion.

My friend lives right by this-she confirmed that the other side of the duplex had been evacuated to a neighbors house. They are ok.

I’m glad they are ok. I kept staring at their snowman inflatable on their side of the duplex when the whole thing exploded. Can you imagine. One day, you’re decorating for Christmas. The next day, the deranged person who lives next to you blows up his house and yours.

This. All your stuff, POOF. It sucks. Insurance almost never covers enough to rebuild. It's so traumatic for those kids!

How do you even rebuild a duplex? Insurance only covers your side. How do you coordinate with whoever has title now with the mentally ill guy’s half (assuming he’s dead)?

Exactly why they won't be able to rebuild there. At least not for a very long time. And they need somewhere to live starting today. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

It’s rubble and from the pictures it looks like all of their possessions were pulverized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

you saw the video didn't you? The entire structure blew up.

[Anonymous]

I see they have kids. Does anybody know where they went to school? And if the school or an organization is raising funds or collecting donations for this family? Please link it here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

It was a duplex! His side on the left, but the covered entrance has 2 doors to each unit. The side on the right with the snowman was the family living next door who he claimed was stalking him. Thank god he didn't just blow the place up while everyone was sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NBC 4 saying suspect is unaccounted for.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/arlington-house-explodes-after-suspect-fires-flare-gun/3486492/

If they go out there with a stick and a spoon, I'm sure they'll find him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

Yes, it was a duplex. Looks like maybe there was a single shared entrance but I couldn’t really tell.

I wonder how insurance handles a situation like this. Because the neighbors only owned half the building … will they need a developer to buy the other half from the heirs of the deceased guy? I imagine whoever inherits from him will want to just get rid of it, but in theory what if they just decide to hold onto the land for a while? I imagine the half lot is too small for the displaced neighbors to build their own SFH. So what in the world happens now?

I hope there is a GoFundMe for them because this could get complicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So the neighbor's house is gone as well?

It was a duplex! His side on the left, but the covered entrance has 2 doors to each unit. The side on the right with the snowman was the family living next door who he claimed was stalking him. Thank god he didn't just blow the place up while everyone was sleeping.

This was the neighbor’s house that was destroyed when both duplex halves exploded.

https://redf.in/w8Vv0v

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We live in the area and were told the suspect has tin foil covering his windows. Apparently the house was up for sale a few years ago but he also chased off potential buyers with a knife.

How the heck can someone’s mental health issues/danger to society be so obvious and yet we do nothing? Honestly this incident was a failure to this man as much as the surrounding neighbors. He clearly had paranoid delusions and was likely psychotic. Would have been better to stabilize him with medical treatment than deal with this fallout.

How do you propose to force him to take medication? I feel for his family. Sad, but since he is clearly violent, if he won't help himself by taking medication, we are better off without him.

Oh I know there isn’t much that can be done under our current lack of legal authority for mental health support. But as a society it’s nuts that we can’t involuntarily commit people like this. The guy was ranting his delusions online and threatening people. And as a side note, I wonder what would happen if a non-mentally ill person was making threats online? Aren’t there some sort of laws against this?

We need to bring back institutions and make it easier to get people help/keep others safe.

Agree there should be institutions.

The reason you "can't just report anyone" is that there would be too many mentally instable people trying to report what they deem to be "mentally instable people". You don't want that, especially where there are so many strivers - insecure, competitive, won't stay in their own lane types. It would be arbitrary chaos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see they have kids. Does anybody know where they went to school? And if the school or an organization is raising funds or collecting donations for this family? Please link it here.

I read somewhere they are at Ashlawn.

I feel so bad for them. Right before the holidays. And how do their parents even explain this to them. I can’t imagine how I’d tell my kids our house blew up (you know they will hear about it from classmates so you can’t just lie). What a confusing thing for an adult to deal with let alone young children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see they have kids. Does anybody know where they went to school? And if the school or an organization is raising funds or collecting donations for this family? Please link it here.

The Arlington Neighbors Helping Each Other facebook group is pretty reliable with this type of thing. They'll also vet that it's legit before posting. So I'd keep an eye out over there. It will probably take the family a bit to work through the steps. Arlington County and APS have resources to help them right now too, so while the public means well, this family probably needs a few days to catch their breath.