Explosion Sends Rocks Flying Through Windows

An explosion in a water line sent rocks hurling through house and car windows Saturday night and left a green liquid puddled in the street.

The explosion occurred about 7:30 p.m. in the 20700 block of East Gilbert Road. The impact sent debris flying in all directions, according to Valley Fire reports.

Rocks broke the front window of a house across the street from the blast and smashed a window in a car parked in front, but no one was injured.

Firefighters arrived to find a “green liquid flowing out of the ground where an obvious explosion occurred,” the report said.

The city’s hazardous materials team was called to investigate the liquid but was turned back when workers from Yellowstone Pipeline claimed responsibility for the explosion, Valley Fire officials said.

Yellowstone workers told firefighters they dyed the water green while they tested for weak spots in the pipe by pumping large amounts of water through it.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency said they knew about the test and the dye posed no hazard to residents or the aquifer, according to the fire report.

A Yellowstone community affairs official told firefighters the company would pay to repair the damages caused by the blast.

Teenager beaten by group

A 16-year-old boy was beaten by four other people late Saturday after he answered the door at a friend’s house.

The victim told sheriff’s deputies he was jumped by the group of boys, who also appeared to be in their teens, when they burst inside the house in the 12900 block of East Fourth Avenue. Deputies said the boys rushed past a girl who knocked on the door.

Members of the group beat the boy on his shoulder, torso, neck and face and tried to drag him out outside, said Lt. David Wiyrick.

The boy, who lives down the street, was treated by Valley Fire paramedics at the scene and was taken home by sheriff’s deputies.

A group of teens was questioned about the 10 p.m. attack, but no arrests were made, Wiyrick said.

Deputies did not offer a motive for the attack.

Man beaten, two arrested

Two people were arrested early Tuesday for allegedly beating a man and vandalizing his home.

The 26-year-old victim, who reportedly is legally blind, was hit in the mouth with a beer bottle and beaten with a garden hose, deputies said. His attackers then punched and kicked him when he fell to the ground.

The skirting on his mobile home in the 6700 block of north Forker Road and one of its windows also were damaged during the 1:30 a.m. tussle, deputies said.

Kenneth W. Putnam and a 17-year-old boy were both arrested for second-degree malicious mischief after they were spotted in a car nearby. Putnam also was booked into the Spokane County Jail for fourth-degree assault.

Putnam is the ex-boyfriend of the victim’s girlfriend, Wiyrick said.

, DataTimes