An explosion 10 years ago in Danvers, Massachusetts, destroyed many buildings around the surrounding Danversport neighborhood.

DANVERS, Mass. — You have to know where to look to find evidence that a massive explosion at an ink and paint plant ripped apart a Massachusetts riverside neighborhood the day before Thanksgiving 10 years ago.

The more than 20 homes that were destroyed in that Nov. 22, 2006, blast have been rebuilt and many of the neighbors have moved back into new homes. A new boat yard occupies the site of the explosion, where the CAI Inc. and Arnel Co. factory was destroyed, and new commercial buildings line the street where old ones had been blown apart. A large settlement and improved safety regulations and protocols also came in the wake of the explosion.

Still, the blast changed forever the lives of those who lived through what former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney termed “a Thanksgiving miracle in Danvers,” because — despite the widespread destruction — no one was killed.

The blast, equivalent to a 2,000-pound bomb, could be felt as far away as New Hampshire. 

It tore apart homes and businesses in the Danversport community with some homes as close as 150 feet from the ink plant. The blast even knocked aside the steeple of a local church more than a half-mile away. The church is still missing its spire.

Ten people were treated at hospitals for injuries, none of them life-threatening. That’s because, officials believe, people were asleep in bed when the blast occurred, and able to avoid flying glass and objects.

Neighbors plan to gather Tuesday at the New England Homes for the Deaf, where windows facing the explosion site were blown out during the blast, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the event.

“This is not a party,” community resident Janet Lettich said. “This is not a celebration. It’s not even a commemoration…We are calling it a neighborhood get-together. We just want to see each other again.”

Lettich described the surreal sight of residents fleeing up the street wearing whatever they could find. Many were wearing fancy dress shoes that had been stored away because their regular shoes were full of glass and debris.

The evacuation

The explosion leveled the facility, damaged dozens of homes and businesses, and shattered windows up to two miles away. Hundreds of lives were uprooted. The local fire department evacuated 300 residents within a half-mile of the facility. It took some people months, even years, to get back into their homes.

But they are back, and today few physical reminders of the blast can be seen.

One is a granite marker at Jeff Bunk’s boat storage yard at the site of the explosion.

“The site of Danversport Explosion,” reads the small memorial. “November 22, 2006.”

In 2013, Bunk took a chance and purchased the 1-acre site as a second facility for his Bunky’s Marina. No one else would touch it.

The overgrown site still had debris on it after it had been abandoned following the explosion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had cleaned up contamination.

“It’s a nice site,” Bunk, a Beverly, Massachusetts, resident, said. “It works nice for me. … These people went through an awful time. This is a perfect use for the property.”

Coming together

Another sizeable change over the past 10 years involves the people who live in the blast-affected community. Almost 30 people who lived in the neighborhood have died in the decade since the blast, Lettich said, and a lot of the neighborhood has turned over.

The blast has created lasting bonds among neighbors who were strangers before the event, but who later supported each other.

“We all came to each other’s houses when they were being torn down,” Lettich said. “…We tried to be there for each other.”

“I didn’t know Janet,” community resident Barbara Lynch said, “until — and I’m going to cry — at the Town Hall, she got up and spoke and said: ‘It may not be a fancy neighborhood, but it’s ours and we love it.’”

Mark and Janet Lettich’s home was destroyed in the blast, and it took them nearly a year to rebuild. They’ll never forget the timing of the blast.

“Our kitchen clock was blown off the wall,” Janet Lettich said. “The battery popped out, and now it’s been stopped forever at 2:46 a.m.” 

Despite the difficulty of rebuilding and the haggling with their insurance company, the Lettiches did not want to leave Danvers. They rented an apartment downtown while they waited for their home to be rebuilt.

Though the neighbors were living elsewhere, they grew close — a local church hosted them for a dinner once a week for about a year.

An unforgettable impact

In the years since the November explosion that shook the community’s foundation, the event’s undeniable impact remains apparent.

“I think we look out for one another,” Lynch said. In the days and weeks that followed the blast, community members checked on one another’s properties — even if it meant confronting workers on the job rebuilding a home.

A decade later, they still communicate through a closed, online group.

Lettich will say “hi” to a neighbor raking leaves, she said, and inevitably be reminded of the night she saw him fleeing down the street with his children in his arms.

“He was wearing boxer shorts, and he had a baby. His two little boys were hanging onto his neck like little monkeys, and he had his arms around them and he was running up Riverside Street. Now those boys are in high school…How do you forget that?”

Forman writes for the Beverly, Massachusetts Salem News.