Why the explosion in Old East Village had such an emotional impact

Charity barbecues, silent auctions and benefit concerts.

In the wake of a gas explosion that destroyed three homes and damaged multiple others in London's Old East Village neighbourhood, the community has stopped short of nothing to help those affected.

While those coordinating the fundraising effort haven't publicly announced a fundraising total yet, Jacqui Thompson, the executive director of LifeSpin, told CBC News last week she expects it will exceed $70,000.

But what makes the explosion on Woodman Avenue different from the fires that decimate homes and leave families with nothing in London every year?

According to Alice Fothergill, a sociology professor at the University of Vermont who studies disasters and inequality, there are few factors.

The nature of the disaster

"Different aspects of a disaster type might bring about different feelings … and a heightened sense of vulnerability," said Fothergill.

For example, there are things a person can do to stop a fire from happening, she explained. That includes installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, remembering to turn the stove off, and opting not to smoke cigarettes in bed.

"A gas explosion feels a little bit less in our control," Fothergill explained.  "It's dramatic and I think it really plays into people's feelings about being vulnerable. At any time, your house could explode … natural gas runs underneath our houses."

The blast on Aug. 14 happened after a vehicle struck a gas meter and caused a gas leak. A 23-year-old woman from Kitchener faces 12 charges, including four counts of impaired operation over 80 mg causing bodily harm and four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The "relatability" of the victims

When people can identify with disaster victims, they are more sympathetic, Fothergill said.

"Most of the support comes from the local area, because you identify as residents… [you're] from the same place," she said.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Fothergill said people felt like it was an attack on all of the U.S., "so the identification with the victims was very, very high, even though people were so far away."

She said she's also done research interviews where people expressed sympathy because victims were the same age as their own children.

"The thing that's painful about this difference and outpouring of support and assistance is that the very groups that need the most aren't getting it, and we have a lot of evidence about that," Fothergill explained.

While high income groups have more resources and are better at navigating bureaucracy to get the help they need, Fothergill said low income groups are more likely to stay in shelters, to need help for longer periods of time, and to become homeless after a disaster.  

The scale of media coverage

Also playing into people's charity in the wake of a disaster, said Fothergill, is how much they know about what happened.

"Scale often determines how much coverage [a disaster] gets, so [the Woodman explosion] is getting to be a larger event affecting a neighbourhood as opposed to one unit of a housing complex," she said.

In the moments after the explosion, about 100 homes on Woodman Avenue and surrounding streets were evacuated. It wasn't until roughly 24 hours later that the evacuation order was lifted on all but ten of those homes.

Officials said seven people were hurt, including one firefighter who spent more than week in hospital and is now said to be recovering at home.   

On Saturday, a silent auction outside the Market at the Western Fair raised money $11,000 for families impacted by the blast. On Sunday, the London Muslim Mosque held a charity barbecue, which organizers say was attended by roughly 300 people.