Three Cranford Runners Are Safe Following Explosions at Boston Marathon

Family members and friends say two of the three Cranford residents who raced in the Boston Marathon Monday were safe following Monday's explosions, which killed three people and injured dozens.

Jessica Barr, 27; Chad Kutney, 34 and Rocco Della Serra, 51, were uninjured following two explosions near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon Monday.

"I finished earlier, met up with my wife, Amy and extended family, to celebrate over lunch on newbury near the finish. Needless to say, our plans changed and we returned safely home last night," Kutney said Tuesday morning. "Our hearts and prayers go out to Boston, and I am very happy to hear the other runners from Cranford are also home safe."

Jessica Barr's co-workers at the Westfield Running Company posted on the Cranford Patch Facebook page Monday, saying the assistant manager of the shop was was "safe and with her family" in the wake of the disaster. 

Della Serra's wife, Cindy, also posted on Patch's Facebook page, saying, "Rocco is my husband and I heard from him. He's fine!" Della Serra said it's been a "rough day" for her family.

A couple of hours after the tragedy, Cranford resident and 2012 marathoner Eric Rubinson was still waiting to find out if his friends of his who participated in Monday's race crossed the finish line safely.

"I'm trying to make sense of it all right now. I had a few friends up there and some had finished and some had not yet. Right now I am just trying to make sure people I know are accounted for," said Rubinson who ran the Boston Marathon last year as the final leg of his quest to complete 50 marathons in 50 states. "I am going to keep hoping that this is some freak set of explosions that doesn't have evil intention behind it. I'm not going to think too much about alternative explanations until there are more facts, but I also don't want to be naive to the circumstances."

Three people were reported dead including an 8-year-old child, and more than 100 were injured after two explosions near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, which featured more than 500 runners from New Jersey, including runners from Summit, Westfield, Cranford and New Providence. Cranford resident Chad Kutney, 34, was also among the runners who participated in the race.

A loud explosion was heard near a bridge that marks the finish line in the annual race, the New York Times reported. The marathon has been stopped as authorities tend to the wounded and lock down nearby buildings.

NBC Nightly News tweeted that a "small homemade bomb" was the source of the explosions. 

PBS reports 562 runners from New Jersey among the 23,000 in the race.

In his address to the nation earlier this evening, President Barack Obama said: "We still do not know who did this or why and people shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all of the facts. But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this, we will find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."

Rubinson, who was still waiting to hear from some friends Monday afternoon, talked about the Boston Marathon and atmosphere that surrounds the race.

"I enjoyed my experience running the Boston Marathon because on Patriots Day, the unity of the Boston community — the runners, the spectators and the supporting services and businesses — represented everything about a society that I want to live in," said Rubinson, who was shaken by news of the explosion.

The Cranford man said that for many people, running marathons is an activity that's meant to be a form of relaxation and an escape, which makes the situation even more disturbing.

"For most of us, marathoning is a recreational activity that is meant to be an escape from the everyday pressures of life," Rubinson said. "I am just so sad that people were harmed on a day where people wanted to celebrate the ligher side of life a bit, and that other human beings probably had a hand in it.