‘It’s pretty surreal’: people in downtown Youngstown react to deadly explosion

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. — The Mahoning County Coroner’s Office has identified Akil Drake, 27, as the man killed in Tuesday’s deadly explosion in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. Drake is believed to be a Chase Bank employee.

Bank customer Carles Thompson is heartbroken but counting his own blessings. He’s still trying to process the devastation that unfolded less than an hour after his trip to Chase with his girlfriend Tuesday afternoon.

“We had just left 45 minutes before this happened. If we’d have gotten down there a little bit later so she could take care of business, she probably would have been in there,” Thompson said. “I thank God for that.”

Thompson is a chef at Bistro 1907, which remained closed Wednesday morning after the Double Tree hotel was evacuated in the hours following the explosion. Guests like Janette Bowers had to stay elsewhere Tuesday night, but some hotel guests were briefly allowed back inside the next morning to get their belongings.

“The faculty at the school of nursing brought me some clothes and really helped me out,” Bowers said.

She’s a career nurse who came to Youngstown to teach this week. Bowers said knowing that a bank worker was killed is unsettling.

“That’s very sad, and I’m sure I’ll discuss that with the nursing students today because we deal with a lot of traumas,” Bowers said.

Tracey Winbush lives in the realty building with her 94-year-old mother and their dog. She wasn’t home when the explosion happened, but her mom was and had to be evacuated.

“It’s pretty surreal. You wake up this morning and say, ‘god – let this not be real,’” Winbush said. “Over the months, we had smelled gas. The tenants had smelled gas and reported gas. But, we’re tenants. We report it, they come out, they say ‘No,’ we say ‘Yes, OK.”

Winbush told Channel 11 she’s grateful to be alive but heartbroken for those she calls “her family” at the bank.

“I knew them all, but I pray for the families, and I thank God there wasn’t more loss of life,” Winbush said.

The 170 people who were evacuated from International Towers, which is next door to the realty building, were allowed to return home overnight.

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