▲北卡州德罕市發生嚴重瓦斯氣爆，造成1人死亡、25人受傷。（圖／達志影像／美聯社）
國際中心／綜合報導
美國北卡羅萊納州德罕（Durham）市中心一處菸草倉庫改建的建築物，10日上午疑似因施工不慎造成瓦斯氣爆，現場幾乎完全被炸毀，造成1人死亡、25人受傷。據指出，死者為當地一間咖啡店的老闆，他當時擔心店內還有顧客，因此沒有在第一時間撤離，結果葬身火窟。
綜合外媒報導，在氣爆發生之前，現場就已經傳出陣陣瓦斯異味。消防人員獲報感到現場，為安全起見先疏散建築物內所有人，唯獨一樓咖啡店的61歲亞裔老闆Kong Lee沒有離開。不久後現場突然爆炸，造成Kong Lee當場死亡，另有25人受傷，其中有9人是消防隊員。
德罕市消防局長表示，消防員確實告訴商店裡的所有人離開，幾乎所有人的立刻撤離，唯獨Kong Lee在店內徘徊；Kong Lee最後一次被目擊，是在咖啡店的門口。Kong Lee的子女事後在社群媒體上po出一篇長文，稱他們聽到父親的最後一句話，「是要我們告知所有員工和老顧客，這裡發生了瓦斯洩漏事故，以免有人過來店裡撲空」在附近經營商店的一名女士認為，Kong Lee應該是想先確保所有人已經離開，自己才要撤離，對此感到相當心痛。
警方表示，某建築承包商的工程人員，當時正在建築物旁的人行道進行鋪設光纖工程，不慎鑿毀地下瓦斯管路，造成瓦斯外洩，但目前仍在調查爆炸原因。
This is our dad. He had the biggest, purest heart out of anyone we know. He always wanted a cafe because he loved to serve people, and we were finally able to build him one. He loved being able to bring people something that would make them smile. The family we created at Kaffeinate made him so happy. We watched your smiles give him strength and joy. Thank you. Above all, he valued family, and he did everything to give us the best life he could. That means he often worked 12-13 hour days doing jobs no one else wanted to do. He never complained because he never wanted us to worry. That was our dad. - A lot of this still seems unreal, including the outpouring of love and support from our community. We lost the best dad we could have ever asked for. We lost our only source of income. Thank you to everyone who has wanted to and been able to donate to us to buy us time until we can figure out what's next. I will post the link in our bio to a gofundme started by our friend. Thank you to the EMS, firefighters, police and everyone else who helped during the crisis. Thank you to everyone who is guiding us through this time. We admit this is all new territory for us and are not quite sure what comes after. - One note: our baristas are fantastic and also have lost their place of work. Please help us find jobs for them. Raymond will need a job also when he is ready. - The last we heard from our dad, he called us to tell us there was a gas leak outside and to let our staff and customers know we would be closed for the day. He was going to close up and make a sign to put on our door in case anybody came by later. He took such good care of the shop and was so proud of it. If you have any memories of him, please share them with us below. - Lastly, Kaffeinate is closed indefinitely. It always was and always will be for our dad. We've been discussing it and hope one day to be able to rebuild and reopen and bring his memory back to life. 아빠, we will miss you every single day. We love you so much more than you will ever know. - Please forgive us if we have not responded to you. It's not because we don't want to, it's because we don't know what to say. - Diana & Raymond
kaffeinate（@kaffeinatenc）分享的貼文 於 張貼
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