Monday, July 10, 2006

Living in a post-911 world

While watching TV this morning, Samantha calls out to me "What's with this building collapse, it's on all the channels?" So, of course I think terrorists as I run into the family room to see. I look at the pictures and notice that the building was rubble and that it had been between two other buildings that were still standing. I change my mind, gas leak (we've had a couple explositions from gas leaks in NJ). I wait around for info but all the newcaster does is ask a thousand questions about the victim that they extracted from the buidling (dumb questions at that). I finally turn it off knowing it's a waste of 15 minutes waiting around until they finally repeat what happened. I figured I would get more news from the Internet. Here's the story:

A four-story building housing doctors' offices collapsed and burned in an apparent gas explosion Monday after what witnesses described as a thunderous blast that rocked an upscale neighborhood just off Madison Avenue.

[...]

Scoppetta said authorities were investigating the possibility that the blast was the result of a suicide attempt. "We're still investigating that, talking about the potential for suicide. So that's a distinct possibility."

A police official told The Associated Press that the lawyer for the doctor's wife contacted police recently and said that she had received an e-mail from him in which the physician, 66-year-old Nicholas Bartha, indicated he was contemplating suicide.

He was going through a difficult divorce and was being forced to sell the building, and authorities believe the explosion may have be related to a suicide attempt, the police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.