Published: 11/24/2006
Day 2: Paralyzed man escapes blast, still smiling
By Alan BurkeStaff writer
DANVERS - The shock of waking up to an explosion that rocks your house and seemingly sets the sky afire is terrifying enough. Try going through it as a quadriplegic.
Louis Scoglio, 63, lives at 27 Riverside St., less than 200 yards from the epicenter of Wednesday's explosion, in a home just recently outfitted to the needs of a man who cannot move his legs and has only limited use of his arms. He was awake when it happened, having just been turned over in bed by his attendant. His wife, Carol, was asleep upstairs.
"The blinds were down," he said yesterday from Beverly Hospital. "There was a blue flash. The windows shattered. And then there was a big yellow fireball." More blasts followed, he said.
Within a short time, the lights went out. He didn't know it, but his house had buckled on one side, and the front door looked like someone had gone at it with a chisel. The roof was damaged. Several windows - not merely the glass - were destroyed. In some places glass was blown in, in others blown out.
"They're talking like (the house) might need to be torn down," Scoglio said.
"And they just completed doing their house over," lamented brother-in-law Stephen Gray, also of Danvers. He'd seen the fireball from his home some blocks away.
"Oh, my God," cried his wife, Cheryl Gray. "It's my brother's house."
Riverside Street soon filled with vehicles and people, some yelling, urging, "Get out of your houses!"
Soft-spoken, Scoglio remembered that he kept his head, calming the people around him. "There's no need to panic," he said. He's had this attitude all his life, he said, even before losing his mobility in a car accident last December. He swerved to avoid a deer and plunged down an embankment, turning over and over.
"I forgot to wear my seat belt," he said. "I usually wear my seat belt."
In the wake of the explosion, it took a few attempts to get help. "I was a little disappointed at first," he said. But eventually Danvers police helped him to his van. And a good thing, because in the confusion there was another seat belt lapse. Scoglio began to pitch forward as the chair rolled down the ramp. A Danvers patrolman caught him.
"I didn't get his name," a grateful Scoglio said. "They were very nice. Everybody involved was nice."
