The Newsleaders
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Sartell – St. Stephen
    • St. Joseph
    • Sports
  • Opinion
    • Column
    • Editorial
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Community
    • Calendar
    • Citizen Spotlight
    • Criers
    • People
  • Notices
    • Funerals/Visitations
    • Obituary
    • Police Blotter
    • Public Notices
    • Support Groups
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • News Tips
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • Sartell-St. Stephen Archive
    • St. Joseph Archive
  • Advertise With Us
    • Print Advertising
    • Digital Advertising
    • 2021 Promotions
The Newsleaders
No Result
View All Result

PineCone Pet Hospital MillerCarlin Serving all of central Minnesota locations!

Albany: 320-845-2035
Holdingford: 320-746-9994
St. Cloud: 320-252-7004
Upsala: 320-573-6234
Toll-free: 1-800-644-4058
Collegeville Stearns Bank
Home News

Neighbors puzzled, at first, by loud boom

June 25, 2012
in News, Sartell – St. Stephen
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

by Dennis Dalman and
Candi Vlasaty
news@thenewsleaders.com

At first Stacey Duane assumed the big boom she heard must be a Memorial Day gun salute echoing from a Sartell cemetery or park.

The time was about 11:20 a.m. Monday morning. Duane, who lives in Evergreen Village, was visiting a next-door neighbor, Rita Heinen. They were sitting on her cement patio with another neighbor, Pete Weisenberg.

Then they heard the noise.

“The house just shook,” Duane said. “It was an unusual sound – that boom. It seemed to echo from the southeast air.”

Weisenberg decided to head toward Highway 15 to see what in the world had made such a noise.

The two women also walked into Val Smith Park, which is adjacent to Evergreen Village. It was then they turned, looked up and saw a huge dark black plume of smoke roiling up into the sky. It was then they knew something catastrophic had happened at the Verso plant, just a few blocks to the west. Soon, they heard shrieking sirens and the pulsating whir of a helicopter. The ominous-looking smoke and the siren sounds were alarming.

“It all scared the living daylights out of us,” Heinen said.

The park manager told the three friends to stay in the house, just to be on the safe side.

At the same time, across the Mississippi River in West Sartell, Charity Hendricks was inside her home at Hillside Apartments, just across from Sartell Middle School and about eight blocks from the Verso plant.

At 11:20 a.m. she heard a loud boom.

“At first I thought it was loud thunder,” she said.

Then Hendricks’ boyfriend called and told her he’d heard a flash-news bulletin on the radio – something about an explosion at the Sartell paper mill. Looking up at the sky, Hendricks and her young daughter, Brisa, saw thick black smoke rising in the southeast. Loud sirens began. Police appeared on the street urging residents to get back inside their apartments.

Hendricks became concerned by the acrid smell of the smoke in the air.

“I didn’t know if the fire was chemical or not,” she said. “It just wasn’t a natural fire smell. And I was concerned about maybe the whole paper plant going up in flames or another explosion.”

As concerned as she was, Hendricks noticed Brisa was not only not scared, she was fascinated by the smoke, the noise, the commotion, the sirens and the helicopter that suddenly appeared, as if by magic, in the sky overhead.

“I never thought anything like this would ever happen,” Hendricks said.

Like all people in Sartell that Memorial Day morning, a loud boom heard by Hendricks, Duane, Heinen and Weisenberg had quickly turned into a major disaster, practically right in their backyards.

Previous Post

City amazed by expert responses to tragedy

Next Post

Veterans honored on beautiful morning

Next Post

Veterans honored on beautiful morning

Please login to join discussion

CMCU Twitter Follow us on
Twitter
for the latest news!
Facebook Follow us on Facebook
for the latest news!

Go Fund Me # 1 Thank You
Newsleader
Supporters!
Elizabeth Brunsvold
Cultural Connections
Jim Berg & Mary Kruger
Mary & John Davis
Sandy Denne
Bobbi & David Gouker
James & marry Graeve
Juliana Howard
Julia Joplin
Linda Kmitch
M. Molus
Sheila Nahan
Go Fund Me # 2 Thank You
Newsleader
Supporters!

Peggy & Michael Roske
Judy Scheuerell
Geraldine Schwab
James Stotko
James Towler
Anna Trobec
Kaye Wenker
Ellen Wahlstrom
Leona Wieland
Jeanie Wilkens
GAGEN & VASUGI RAMANATHAN
Go Fund Me # 3 Thank You
Newsleader
Supporters!
Nicole Borg
Erica Karger-Gatzow
Dane & Lori Listug-Lunde
Nadine Martin
Doris Minnerath
Merry Mund
Marilyn Peitso
Stephen Schwanke
Dianne Tuff
Dale Zacher
Private Donors

Search

No Result
View All Result

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Kluesner appointed to St. Joseph City Council
  • Wood sentenced for killing two children
  • A list of school superintendent finalists expected March 1
  • Sartell man injured in snowmobile crash
  • Sales-tax revenue for Sartell on the up and up

City Links

Sartell
St. Joseph
St. Stephen

School District Links

Sartell-St. Stephen school district
St. Cloud school district

Chamber Links

Sartell Chamber
St. Joseph Chamber

Community

Calendar

Citizen Spotlight

Criers

People

Notices

Funerals/Visitions

Obituary

Police Blotter

Public Notices

Support Groups

About Us

Contact Us

News Tips

Submissions

Advertise With Us

Print Advertising

Digital Advertising

2021 Promotions

Local Advertising Rates

National Advertising Rates

© 2021 Newleaders

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Sartell – St. Stephen
    • St. Joseph
    • Sports
  • Opinion
    • Column
    • Editorial
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Community
    • Calendar
    • Citizen Spotlight
    • Criers
    • People
  • Notices
    • Funerals/Visitations
    • Obituary
    • Police Blotter
    • Public Notices
    • Support Groups
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • News Tips
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • Sartell-St. Stephen Archive
    • St. Joseph Archive
  • Advertise With Us
    • Print Advertising
    • Digital Advertising
    • 2021 Promotions

© 2021 Newleaders

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In