A man who narrowly missed twin bomb blasts while running the Boston Marathon barely avoided disaster again two days later when he was rocked by the explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant.
Joe Berti, 43, could be considered the unluckiest man in the world for being so close to both horrific disasters.
Instead, he feels fortunate that he escaped from both tragedies unscathed.
'I was just like, "I can't believe this!"' said Mr Berti, who said he had never witnessed an explosion before. Then he thought: 'I just want to get out of here and get away from all these explosions.'
Unlucky? Joe Berti survived the Boston Marathon bombings by only 30 seconds. Two days later he saw - and felt - the blast in West, Texas
Unlucky: Joe Berti snapped this photo as he drove through West, Texas, two days after he narrowly missed the blast radius at the Boston Marathon
His wife fears he is becoming a magnet for disaster.
'We need to keep him moving. Maybe he just needs to stand in an open field,' Amy Berti said.
Mr Berti, who lives in Austin, Texas, says he crossed the finish line about 30 seconds before the first bomb exploded.
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He was looking for his wife and their friend when he felt and saw the explosion. Mrs Berti had gone to the finish line and taken a place among the spectators to snap a picture of her husband crossing the finish line.
Mrs Berti and the couple's friend where hit by flying debris, but suffered only minor bruising.
Joe Berti, second from left, is seen in this AP photo taken at a vigil Monday night in Boston after the marathon bombings
This is Mr Berti's wife Amy, taken just before the marathon. She is seen in this Associated Press news photo, left, fleeing the bombing
A woman right next to her had her leg torn off from the knee down, and lost all the fingers in her left hand.
Two days later, Mr Berti was returning home to Austin, Texas, after a day of meetings in Dallas. He was driving south on Interstate 35, which passes through West, when he saw a black smoke rising from the town.
As a got closer, he saw - and felt - a rumbling blast.
'You've got to be kidding!' he remembers thinking. He described the giant fireball as a massive force that shook his car. He said it looked like pictures of nuclear explosions that he has seen on television.
He didn't know what he had just witnessed - but he pulled over and took a picture.
'My next reaction was to get out of there because something fell on the top of my car - some debris or something fell from the sky,' he said.