Local Resident Maria Stephanos Describes Boston Marathon Explosion as ‘Very Chaotic’

Foxborough resident – and Fox25 anchor - Maria Stephanos and her children were at the finish line of the 117^th Boston Marathon Monday afternoon congratulating her husband, Dale for completing the 26.2-mile course when two explosions occurred roughly 20 seconds apart from each other.

“People were just coming through the finish line and were walking through the corral and about to take the blankets and then all of a sudden you hear this ‘Boom’ and you turn around and you saw this explosion coming out of a building,” Stephanos, told Fox25 shortly after news of the incident broke.

Stephanos described the scene to Fox25 as “very chaotic” and “nothing like you had ever seen.”

“My heart just breaks for anybody who’s hurt,” Stephanos told Fox25. “This is just devastating.”

Stephanos told the network she had just watched her husband cross the finish line at the four-hour mark of the marathon when she heard the first explosion.

“I was right there,” Stephanos said. “I turned around and you saw the plume of smoke in the middle of the building [reported as Marathon Sports]. It forced you to jerk your head and turn around.”

Stephanos recalled during a phone interview with the station that the explosion appeared to have occurred halfway up the Marathon Sports building and not on the ground floor.

“It looked like the explosion happened halfway up a building,” Stephanos said. “It didn’t look like it happened on the ground floor. … the building is still standing.”

From there, Stephanos said, people who could not walk after running the marathon “found a way to walk as fast as possible” away form the scene, which had instantly become chaotic.

“ It was packed,” Stephanos said of the scene just before the explosion. “There were a lot of people coming through the finish line at that moment. There were 10-people deep on the sidelines waiting for their loved ones to come in. You have all of those people who were right there … you could just see panic setting in with the people around you.”

Stephanos said she witnessed runners on their phones crying as people were waiting for other runners to come into Copley Square.

“It was very chaotic,” she said. … “People were joyous and feeling accomplished and then boom it just turned and it was panic instantly.”

For the latest information regarding the Boston Marathon explosions, click here.

There were 20 runners from Walpole participating in Monday’s marathon. Thus far Walpole Patch has confirmed Una Corrigan, Sue Ledwith and Thomas Quinn are safe. We are trying to confirm the condition of the other 17 runners and are asking for your help. If you have heard from one of the following runners, please contact Walpole Patch Local Editor Jeremie Smith at Jeremie.Smith@patch.com or (744) 232-8220.

NAME

AGE

BIB NUMBER

Meghan Aldridge

26

23263

Timothy Bailey

48

25138

Judy Conroy

56

23217

Una Corrigan (REPORTED SAFE)

44

14990

Daniel F. Coughlin

46

23211

James W. Dugdale

58

25635

James J. Egan

53

10482

Patrick Kemple

21

3085

Maureen A. Larkin

48

22953

Sue Ledwith (REPORTED SAFE)

43

23539

Jeff M. Mahoney

40

21764

Michele C. McCullough

42

22763

Lisa Morrissey

52

23704

Fiona Murphy

47

17043

Thomas Quinn (REPORTED SAFE)

44

24950

David Reavill

51

13511

Brandon Simpson

30

23760

Amy Sparks

29

23952

John Stadtler

46

25443

Michael St. George

45

25859