Boston Marathon Explosion

Terrible news out of Boston. There have been multiple explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Apparently massive injuries. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

News just said possible 3rd explosion crowds being pushed back even further. 2 unconfirmed fatalities called in by a nurse to the station so far.

What a treacherous world we live in.

A third device has been reported exploded at the JFK Library in Boston.


Update: Boston Fire is now stating that the incident at JFK Library seems to be fire related - at about 5:36 p.m. Eastern time

Just saw it on BBC news here.....hope any forum friends from
there are safe ?
It's a worry.

I'm on twitter and there is a guy @BostonScanner who has police scanner info on what is going on.

CNN just reported that they've shutdown cell phone service since they believe the devices were detonated by cellphone.

oh GOD , help them !

Just finished reading a lot of the reports from twitter feeds - I feel sadness and anger that such a situation can occur - keeping them in my prayers today

Stay safe xx

New York, LA and San Francisco have also gone on alert.

LornaDoone wrote:A third device has been reported exploded at the JFK Library in Boston.

This was just confirmed not an explosion - It was an electrical fire.

Oh man this tweet just made my stomach turn!

MayorMark ‏@MayorMark 27m

The last mile in the Boston Marathon was dedicated to the Newtown families. Some parents of Newtown victims were seated in the VIP section.

Besides the 2 explosions with in 5-20 second of each other along finish line, they have set off another explosion with water hoses they found. They are still continueing there search of more explosives

Person finder web site is here.....


http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions/

Scary afternoon, I have a number of friends running this race today but whewww they are all safe.

That's good news Pandabear -

Can I ask a naïve question of the US ladies, don't they have sniffer dogs for bombs etc at these major events since 9/11 or am I wrong?

I would think that they would since the runners are the elite runners from all over the world. This is a prestigious marathon to run and can only enter with a qualifying time and even then you are not guaranteed an entry. I also believe the only other way you can get in is through a charity, you have to raise a lot of money.

theminis wrote:That's good news Pandabear -

Can I ask a naïve question of the US ladies, don't they have sniffer dogs for bombs etc at these major events since 9/11 or am I wrong?

Yes they do, as more information comes out they may find reasons as why the dogs did not find these explosives.

Couple theories on tv are the scent was hidden, the other is they were placed after the race started as if someone came out of a hotel and left package there. So many theories going around right now.

It is all a shame!

For those who are not in the U.S. since 2:50 pm(midwest time) the local chanels have been nothing but the Marathon news. They continually show the scene over and over. They are talking about other cities adding extra security do to maybe more or copy cat's. These city's and venues are deciding to do this on their own the goverment has not told them they have to. President Obama has adressed this on live feed at about 5:15pm (midwest time). The latest news bit is that runners are headed to give blood. local news has just taken over and of course Boston is head story.

Yes apparently this is a spot where there were pedestrians etc so it could have been left after the race started. I heard from someone in a hotel nearby said the police came by and said to turn off their phones because they thought a cell phone had been the trigger.

So much misinformation has been going around. We need to remember it is a fluid situation. Hopefully they will be every find who did this.

Slide show of photos

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/several-injured-in-boston-marathon-explosions-slideshow/

The BBC news here in UK is covering it all the time and getting updates from BBC correspondents on the scene.
One young man has lost both his legs and a lot of injuries are from shrapnel.

Evil people have done this evil deed.

President Obama spoke very well IMO.

I know I keep crying...especially since I just heard one of the deaths was an 8 year old. It will be awhile before this is all sorted out.

I just heard about it and am in shock. I just don't understand the world we live in. Why do people have to hurt other people like this? The fact that there were Newtown families there just makes it even worse for them. So much sadness.

Honestly there is no understanding when it comes to a situation like this, as we decent people cannot comprehend the level of hatred that must be in someones heart to do such a horrible thing to their fellow man..

Had to post this as it spoke to me about true bravery, running into danger to help others....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-fineman/boston-marathon-patriots-day_b_3088070.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

WASHINGTON -- Screams are sweet music to terrorists, the soundtrack they need to hear as they dramatize their grievances by murdering innocents.

They are the kings of chaos and the enemies of freedom, because their only true aim is to shackle society in the chains of fear.

But Monday was Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, a celebration of freedom in honor of the first shots fired in a war fought in the name of liberty.

And this afternoon, the meaning of the day was as important as the size of the crowd.

Bostonians celebrate the battles of Lexington and Concord in a touching act of community, a marathon in which strangers cheer on strangers, and runners push themselves toward the finish line with charming grit.

Today, rescuers were running toward the wounded on Boylston Street in acts of true heroism -- running toward the sound of the screams.

In the end, the terrorists will fail because Bostonians did not turn from their fellow men -- they turned toward them. And that is the real music of mankind.

Thank you Theminis.

ps. thanks ladies for answering my questions re sniffer dogs - it make sense that someone could have planted the bomb after the race started - as Sillygirl said its a fluid situation still, time will tell what lessons can be learned from this.

God, it's just awful. Awful.

Are there any theories yet as to who and why?

No real information yet. They don't know. Say they don't have a person of interest yet.

Various tweets are saying that an apartment was raided with search warrants in Revere along with pictures, but I don't think the FBI has any real information to release yet.

Posted 5mins ago on Twitter.

Press conference updates Boston Marathon explosion, says FBI in charge of investigation youtu.be/ZBkPFRY9VTY

— NewsHour (@NewsHour) April 16, 2013

London Marathon on Sunday 21 April

A period of silence will be held before the start of the London Marathon on Sunday to pay tribute to those killed and injured in the bombings in Boston, race organisers have announced.

by Matt Gibson, Press Association 6:26 PM

the news today says they ruled out the person of interest after searching his apartment so they still don't have any idea who did this.

With all the phone cameras, TV stations and security cameras something has got to show up. I hope!

I hope people weather they think they have any thing at all turns in to the FBI what they have, you never know what you may have caught to the untrained eye.

Let's focus on how this tragedy brought out the "best" in us...a story about a real American hero. This is who we really are under all the political rancor:

Carlos Arredondo, Boston Marathon Hero in a Cowboy Hat, on the Bombs

Daily Beast

He had gone to the marathon to honor his dead sons. By the end of the day, Carlos Arredondo was a hero. He tells Michael Daly about saving a man with his legs blown off by the explosion.

Carlos Arredondo was in the bleachers by the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the first bomb went off directly across the street.

“Loud,” he says. “The fireball that came out. Also the smoke.”
APTOPIX Boston Marathon Explosion
Arredondo assists medical responders as they help an injured man following an explosion in Boston on April 15, 2013. (Charles Krupa/AP)

In the next moment, the 53-year-old from Boston was vaulting a barricade and racing straight into the acrid cloud, wearing a cowboy hat like some Western hero.

“That’s the first reaction, ‘We have to go help somebody!’” he says.

He saw a big pool of blood and several severed limbs. And there was a young man in a gray top directly in front of him who was trying desperately to stand up.

“He had no legs,” Arredondo says.

A second bomb went off 100 yards away. Arredondo kept his focus on the young man, asking his name and offering his own.

“I told him, ‘My name’s Carlos, you’re going to be OK, help is on the way,’” Arredondo recalls.

The man was bleeding so heavily he seemed likely soon to be beyond help unless Arredondo applied tourniquets. He grabbed of the first thing he saw that might work.

“Somebody’s sweater,” he said. “I tore it apart.”

The tourniquet on the left leg went just above the knee, below which there was nothing but torn flesh and a length of bare bone.

Another tourniquet went on the right leg. Arredondo next grabbed a wheelchair that somebody was pushing past. He placed the young man into it and moved it as quickly as he could while still holding up what remained of the legs.

The young man was still conscious, and Arredondo told him to assist as best he could by working his hands on the wheels.

They proceeded on through the panicked crowd as quickly as circumstances allowed.

“That was a whole marathon,” Arredondo says. “Getting people out of the way and getting him help.”
130414-carlos-arredondo-boston-bomb-daly-embed
Carlos Arredondo, who was at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon when two explosives detonated, leaves the scene on April 15, 2013, in Boston. (Darren McCollester/Getty)

Arredondo continued with the young man on into the big white medical tent that had been set up for runners who became dehydrated or hobbled during the race. The runners now watched this other kind of marathon, with Arredondo and the bleeding young man with no legs proceeding all the way through the tent to the exit where ambulances had begun to arrive.

A woman had begun pushing from the rear, and a cop had stepped in to help from the front. The young man was still conscious when he was loaded into an ambulance.

“I told him,’ You’re going to be fine,’” Arredondo says.

He had only one flag left when the bombs went off, and it had become soaked in blood as he helped the young man. “Look at the flag, all bleeding,” Arredondo said.

More ambulances and then still more arrived for the other injured, who totaled at least 100, including at least eight children, one just 2 years old. The three dead included an 8-year-old, killed at the end of the marathon whose final mile this year had been dedicated to the murdered school kids at Sandy Hook.

Arredondo remained at the scene, still wearing buttons bearing photos of his two sons that he had affixed to the chest of his sweatshirt before coming to the race. The older one, Alexander, had been just 20 when he was killed serving with the Marines in Iraq. The younger son, Brian, subsequently hanged himself.

“Next to him we find a letter about how the other brother died,” Arredondo now told me.

The marathon is on Patriots’ Day, and Arredondo had come to hand out American flags in the memory of his sons and the others who have lost their lives as result of the war on terror that was supposed to help keep us safe.

“I hand out 200!” he reported.

He had only one flag left when the bombs went off, and it had become soaked in blood as he helped the young man.

“Look at the flag, all bleeding,” Arredondo said.

He furled it and stuck it in his back pocket. He stood with more blood on the sleeve of his sweatshirt and on his pants and on his shoes as the marathoners who had filled the streets were replaced by SWAT teams in body armor and a man in a bomb disposal suit right out of the movie The Hurt Locker. Investigators on the other side of the crime scene tape searched for clues, testing for chemical traces of the explosives, collecting surveillance-camera footage.

A 20-year-old Saudi man had been running away from the explosions when a civilian tackled him and alerted a cop. But the Saudi had been cooperative and his identification had checked out, making the authorities discount early rumors that they had a suspect.

What is known about the killer or killers is that they were not just trying to make a political point by disrupting the world’s oldest marathon on the day that marked both the start of the American Revolution and the deadline for taxes. They had been trying to kill as many people as they could by detonating the bombs in the crowd.

Pure evil had struck again, as it had at the World Trade Center, as it had at Sandy Hook. But, as always, good had risen to face it, and Arredondo had not been alone. Many others had immediately pitched in to help before the smoke had fully cleared. One man from Duxbury, Massachusetts, threw himself atop his kids when the bombs detonated, and a stranger threw himself on top of the dad to give them more protection.

As night deepened, Arredondo returned home with the bloodied flag and the photos of his sons. He had gone to the marathon to honor them. And that is exactly what he had done.

Meanwhile, the search for the killers continues.

wow, just WOW! Thanks Lighter.

Very Very moving account of a tragic event.

The Human Spirit Survives !

Up date they may have someone-

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130417/US--Boston.Marathon-Explosions/?cid=hero_media

hope the pression can slow down ASAP
those are so difficult days

The Boston Marathon update was just on TV over here. The statement was that they do not have anyone in custody (earlier reports were either over zealous or wrong) but that the authorities do have pictures of the person who planted the bomb at the finish line. Lets hope they find this person soon!

Prayers to the many who were hurt and their families.

such a tragedy
in so many ways


and now I read about Texas too!

There is video making the rounds of the Boston crowd at the first sports event since the bombing - a hockey match with the Boston Bruins playing. As per normal tradition at the start of the game, they have the national anthem sung by a singer. This time, the crowd takes over singing the anthem and considering all they have been through in the past week, it just breaks your heart but is also so uplifting.

From Huff Post Link

It made me cry and I'm not American.

Yep I cried too, not American but so admire the Bostonians strength and strong spirits

This is the story about the young man whose life was saved by
Carlos Arredondo.
Contains an upsetting picture of the young man being
carried to safety.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/us/in-grisly-image-a-father-sees-his-son.html?_r=0

major lockdown in Boston area....one suspect dead the other on the run...armed and dangerous...be same to anyone in the area....so incredible....

Mm, and tragic to think this is the norm in parts of the Middle East.........

party animal - not! wrote:Mm, and tragic to think this is the norm in parts of the Middle East.........

That was one of my first thoughts when it happened. We don't realize that this is the "norm" for people living in the Middle East and very well could and does happen on any day of the week; doesn't have to be a special event, it just requires a large group of people gathered together. I can't imagine having to live like that, with extreme fear every time you go out.