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DANVERS - Matt Degis feared the worst early Wednesday morning when a loud explosion woke him up.

The Danvers football junior and Water Street resident was stunned when he looked out his families' apartment window and saw the raging fire from the chemical explosion at CAI Inc.

"I didn't know what was going on," Degis said. "All I could see was the fire. It was scary."

Degis' apartment didn't sustain much damage, saying the house shook and a few pictures fell from the walls. He and his family are thankful the damage wasn't worse.

"We got lucky for sure," Degis said. "We live in a apartment house so we didn't have much damage. We didn't realize how lucky we were until we saw the rest of the area."

Degis said it was tough for him to focus on yesterday's game against Gloucester. He said he wanted to play the game to show his support for the community. Danvers lost the game 25-13.

"I had so many other things on my mind that it was hard to take the field," Degis said. "A lot of us have had a hard time dealing with this. It's been tough."

Danvers coach Mike Stellato said he and his staff spent time talking about the devastating accident at Wednesday's practice. The team had a tough time dealing with the events, especially after hearing that freshman coach Robert Beddia had his house damaged. Stellato had Beddia and his family over his mother's home for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.

"When something like what happened on Wednesday hits home it can be tough for anyone to deal with," Stellato said. "We spoke about what happened as a group at yesterday's practice and the kids seemed to feel better after we spoke to them. They kept their focus on what they had to do to win and that was the important thing. With it being the senior's last game and the final game of the season they just kept things into perspective and played hard. It was nice to see."

Danvers senior Colin Lynch said that focusing on the game helped many of his teammates deal with the event.

"It's been an emotional time for us," Lynch said. "We've had a lot to think about over the past few days. All we were thinking about today was football. We were focused on trying to win. I was so proud of these guys for giving it everything they had."

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