INDIANAPOLIS — 10 years ago Nov. 10 at 11:10 p.m., a massive natural gas explosion shook the Richmond Hill neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis.
The investigation led to criminal charges and convictions. Two innocent neighbors died. More than 30 homes had to be demolished because of the damage.
Michelle Waddey survived that night about 100 yards away from the blast. She still lives at the same address on the street where the explosion occurred.
Waddey was sitting on the edge of her bed upstairs reading a book on a tablet.
"The biggest noise that I have ever heard, literally shook the house. It shook me,” recalled Waddey. "I walked down the stairs to kind of see what was going on and I heard the people yelling, 'Get out of your house, get out of your house.'"
Waddey’s house was still standing but severely damaged, the windows blown out, walls bent and moved. In her bathroom upstairs, shards of glass from the vanity mirror were impaled on the opposite wall. She had been standing in front of the mirror, removing her makeup just a few minutes earlier.
The front door was off its frame and jammed. Waddey kicked it open and stepped out on her front porch to see the November night sky on fire.
"The size of a house ball of fire right down the street from me,” Waddey recalls.
The natural gas explosion across the street and just a few houses down was intentionally set to collect insurance money. The massive blast destroyed or damaged homes all around. Dion and Jennifer Longworth died in the house next to the explosion.
Waddey's family was forced out of their house for six months during reconstruction, but they were determined to return to Richmond Hill.
"This is my home, and I didn't want it to be... I felt like if I left that they would have won,” said Waddey. "It took me years to get to where I felt safe in my home again, and that kind of stinks when your home's not your safe place."
The lot where the explosion originated and the lot where the Longworths were killed remain empty 10 years later, a constant and close reminder to neighbors who experienced what happened here on Fieldfare Way on Nov. 10, 2012.
Waddey thinks of the families when she drives by the empty lots every day, coming and going from the neighborhood.
"I lost stuff, they lost people,” said Waddey. “And as a mom, I just can't imagine. So I just turned it into an opportunity to pray for them, because then, that helped me, because it took the focus off myself and put it onto someone else."
Waddey is also a breast cancer survivor, a diagnosis that shook her again just two months after the explosion. But 10 years later she is cancer free and grateful for her life, home and neighborhood.
"We're okay,” said Waddey. “We're back and some of us are still here. Some of us are not, as far as like moving in and out of the neighborhood. But I think we're kind of stronger than ever because going through something like that does make you stronger."
The neighborhood was forever changed by the explosion, but for Waddey and others who rebuilt and stayed, time has restored home sweet home.
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