Some three hours before sunrise last Sunday, a thunderous propane explosion in the northwest part of Toronto set that neighbourhood (and the entire city, in sympathy) on its ears. Because the industrial property at the blast site sat across the street from residential housing, this story will be in the news for months to come.

A 1.6 km exclusion zone (it appears that the authorities are more comfortable picking arbitrary numbers from the old Imperial system of measurements) was set up, rationalized to some nearby major roads — some cutting the exclusion circle, others outside its perimeter. A 16-kilometer section of Highway 401, acknowledged as Canada’s busiest stretch of road, was closed for the rest of the day.

My picture isn’t the best view of the empty highway but it’s the best I could do: I was denied access to the nearby overpass bridge (unlike the television reporter who was driven onto the empty roadway and allowed to stand on it for the camera). My photo was taken at Keele St., looking west. The overpass in the distance is Highway 400 which was still open. Here’s a photo taken on the other side of the 400, looking east from the Weston Rd. bridge.

To get my photographs, I had walked to the locations and by the time I got home again I was beat: It seems I had covered 14.5 km in total, only a third of a marathon: I have new respect for long-distance runners.