House Explosion in North Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I’m a PP upthread — I see now there are 2 entrances under the overhang. It was hard to tell from the video angle.

Wow it’s a really nicely updated duplex. Worth almost $1m! They bought in 2021 so they likely had a low rate. Does this mean they’ll have to get a new mortgage at a higher rate if they can’t rebuild and have to move or does the bank let it transfer.

That really screws them if they have to start all over in today’s market. They had only been there 2 years and probably thought they had a home for a while. Now they’re back out in this crap real estate market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

I can answer this question since I live in one: basically the duplex has an insurance policy that covers anything outside the inner walls of the home, of course I dont see how someone as mentally disturbed as this guy would've agreed to pay his half but you need it if either property is mortgaged, then each individual owner has their own private policy that covers their belongings on the inside of their "4 walls".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

I can answer this question since I live in one: basically the duplex has an insurance policy that covers anything outside the inner walls of the home, of course I dont see how someone as mentally disturbed as this guy would've agreed to pay his half but you need it if either property is mortgaged, then each individual owner has their own private policy that covers their belongings on the inside of their "4 walls".

But how do you rebuild in the event of a total loss if the owner of the other side isn’t cooperative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Ashlawn family, and there have been some offers from within the Buy Nothing FB group to also coordinate a go fund me, donations of goods and so on. So so traumatic but I hope the community can come together and help them in whatever way is needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I’m a PP upthread — I see now there are 2 entrances under the overhang. It was hard to tell from the video angle.

Wow it’s a really nicely updated duplex. Worth almost $1m! They bought in 2021 so they likely had a low rate. Does this mean they’ll have to get a new mortgage at a higher rate if they can’t rebuild and have to move or does the bank let it transfer.

That really screws them if they have to start all over in today’s market. They had only been there 2 years and probably thought they had a home for a while. Now they’re back out in this crap real estate market.

I think the rate is the least of their worries, as how do you possibly rebuild one half of a duplex, as others have mentioned. I wonder if you could rebuild as two detached houses instead? Like a townhouse size in width but detached. You’d think the zoning appeals people would be likely to grant a variance/change based on this terrible situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I appreciate this. I hope to see and I’ll keep an eye on the local news outlets. I hope the entire DC area can rally behind this one family and help them out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So incredibly sad that this man didn’t get mental health treatment he so obviously needs . How did he get so many guns?

To clear the air:

This is a regular SFH/brick duplex neighborhood in Arlington a couple of blocks from the Ballston metro, near a popular trail, a big elementary school, a large community center, etc. About as low-crime, suburban kind of neighborhood as it gets, with those small, close-in lots.

There's no such thing as a "meth lab" in Arlington, lots are too small and rents are too high for there to be vacant properties like that. Small older houses sell for $850K in one week and are torn down to build $1.5M McMansions.

There is no evidence of any guns except the flare gun, so laws may have actually worked in this case. Signs point to natural gas as the source of the explosion.

Records show family (sister and ex-wife) had tried to get him mental health treatment, which is hard to do with an adult.

Calling him "racist against white people" is ridiculous. He was an untreated paranoid schizophrenic, he didn't have coherent thoughts, he thought anyone and everyone was out to get him.

Pretty clearly he was racist against white people, he put that right on YouTube. If it was a white paranoid schizophrenic racist he'd still be a racist, works both ways.

Don't know why you are so determined to say he is racist against white people. His complaints about his neighbors were not just that they were white, he also said they were spies, witches, and aliens. Racism is prejudice against a person or community because of their race. He wasn't prejudiced. He was psychotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So incredibly sad that this man didn’t get mental health treatment he so obviously needs . How did he get so many guns?

To clear the air:

This is a regular SFH/brick duplex neighborhood in Arlington a couple of blocks from the Ballston metro, near a popular trail, a big elementary school, a large community center, etc. About as low-crime, suburban kind of neighborhood as it gets, with those small, close-in lots.

There's no such thing as a "meth lab" in Arlington, lots are too small and rents are too high for there to be vacant properties like that. Small older houses sell for $850K in one week and are torn down to build $1.5M McMansions.

There is no evidence of any guns except the flare gun, so laws may have actually worked in this case. Signs point to natural gas as the source of the explosion.

Records show family (sister and ex-wife) had tried to get him mental health treatment, which is hard to do with an adult.

Calling him "racist against white people" is ridiculous. He was an untreated paranoid schizophrenic, he didn't have coherent thoughts, he thought anyone and everyone was out to get him.

Pretty clearly he was racist against white people, he put that right on YouTube. If it was a white paranoid schizophrenic racist he'd still be a racist, works both ways.

Don't know why you are so determined to say he is racist against white people. His complaints about his neighbors were not just that they were white, he also said they were spies, witches, and aliens. Racism is prejudice against a person or community because of their race. He wasn't prejudiced. He was psychotic.

Interesting that everyone is assuming that he was wrong and that the neighbors were not spying on him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So incredibly sad that this man didn’t get mental health treatment he so obviously needs . How did he get so many guns?

To clear the air:

This is a regular SFH/brick duplex neighborhood in Arlington a couple of blocks from the Ballston metro, near a popular trail, a big elementary school, a large community center, etc. About as low-crime, suburban kind of neighborhood as it gets, with those small, close-in lots.

There's no such thing as a "meth lab" in Arlington, lots are too small and rents are too high for there to be vacant properties like that. Small older houses sell for $850K in one week and are torn down to build $1.5M McMansions.

There is no evidence of any guns except the flare gun, so laws may have actually worked in this case. Signs point to natural gas as the source of the explosion.

Records show family (sister and ex-wife) had tried to get him mental health treatment, which is hard to do with an adult.

Calling him "racist against white people" is ridiculous. He was an untreated paranoid schizophrenic, he didn't have coherent thoughts, he thought anyone and everyone was out to get him.

Pretty clearly he was racist against white people, he put that right on YouTube. If it was a white paranoid schizophrenic racist he'd still be a racist, works both ways.

Don't know why you are so determined to say he is racist against white people. His complaints about his neighbors were not just that they were white, he also said they were spies, witches, and aliens. Racism is prejudice against a person or community because of their race. He wasn't prejudiced. He was psychotic.

Interesting that everyone is assuming that he was wrong and that the neighbors were not spying on him.

Plug his name into X and you’ll see a lot of the conspiracy theorists have jumped all over this.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone seen the footage from YouTube where the suspect is live-commenting after the explosion? I wonder if he's still alive? Like, maybe he had some sort of remote detonation bomb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen the footage from YouTube where the suspect is live-commenting after the explosion? I wonder if he's still alive? Like, maybe he had some sort of remote detonation bomb.

Or someone is impersonating him

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen the footage from YouTube where the suspect is live-commenting after the explosion? I wonder if he's still alive? Like, maybe he had some sort of remote detonation bomb.

Link??!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

The suspect was renting.

The landlord will be made whole by the insurance company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

The suspect was renting.

The landlord will be made whole by the insurance company.

But still, in order to rebuild you would have to partner with the owner of the other half. You’d have to find a builder together. You’d have to sign a contract with them. The whole thing would be problematic and difficult.

[Anonymous]

His modus operendi is easy to see from this report:

“Arlington County Police spokeswoman Ashley Savage that police received a call about 4:45 p.m. Monday about a flare gun being fired at a home on the 800 block of Burlington Street. Video posted online showed one or two orange flares, of the sort used to summon help or signal an emergency, arcing up into the air around dusk, before settling to the ground.

After that, police tried to execute a search warrant at the house related to the flare gun discharge, Savage said. She said that the person inside declined to cooperate, and discharged the flare gun several more times. “

- he intentionally filled the interior of the house with natural gas (the same gas your gas stove or water heater uses); and

- he tried several times to set off an explosion, using his flare gun.

Eventually, he succeeded.

This was an intentional natural gas explosion. You have the same “explosives” in your own home.