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Plantation Explosion Putting Employees Out Of Work

A gas explosion at Pizzafree, a pizza parlor across from the Fountains Plaza in Plantation, on Saturday, July 6, injured 23 people and caused the windows to blow out at LA Fitness. via MATIAS OCNER / MIAMI HERALD
A gas explosion at Pizzafree, a pizza parlor across from the Fountains Plaza in Plantation, on Saturday, July 6, injured 23 people and caused the windows to blow out at LA Fitness. via MATIAS OCNER / MIAMI HERALD

The Plantation mall explosion over the weekend damaged stores and injured more than 20 people. Now, some employees in the surrounding businesses are out of work.

Police still aren’t sure what caused the abandoned pizza restaurant to explode.

Siobhan Edwards is president of the greater Plantation chamber of commerce. At a resource session Tuesday night, the chamber organized opportunities for employees who are out of a job.

“I started working on this on Sunday, at the site. Knowing these people are going to be without a job, what do we do?” Edwards asked.

Employers like Publix, CarMax and Renaissance Hotel reached out to Edwards to offer jobs.

“It’s interesting how Plantation works, it really is a family, you know these businesses. It’s devastating,” Edwards said.

Edwards estimates a little over 100 part time workers are going to need new jobs.

After a brief stint as Morning Edition Producer at The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island, Talia Blake returned to Central Florida Public Media. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with degrees in both Broadcast Journalism and Psychology. While at UCF, she was an intern for Central Florida’s public affairs show, Intersection. She joined on as Morning Edition Host in 2019. In 2022, Ms. Blake was appointed to the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalist’s board of directors.