Five people were found dead after a house explosion in western Pennsylvania that destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others, authorities said Sunday.
Plum Borough Police Chief Lanny Conley said the bodies of four adults and one adolescent were recovered after the blast shortly before 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the borough, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh.
“This is certainly a sad, sad day and a sad time, for not just the folks in Plum but all the folks in the community and in this region,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
Of the three people taken to hospitals, two were released while one remained in critical condition, said Steve Imbarlina, deputy director of fire and emergency services for Allegheny County. Fifty-seven firefighters were treated at the scene for minor issues.
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The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office is expected to provide additional information about the deceased victims.
“Please give us some time to deal with this situation and give the families your respect and give them some space to deal with this tragedy,” Conley said.
More than 20 firefighters were evaluated, many for heat exhaustion, authorities said.
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Emergency officials suspended operations Saturday night due to weather and concern for the safety of investigators. Crews resumed working at the site on Sunday morning.
Emergency responders reported people trapped under debris after one house apparently exploded and two others were engulfed in flames, county spokesperson Amie Downs said.
Crews from at least 18 fire departments worked to douse the flames with the help of water tankers from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, Downs said.
Officials told reporters at the scene they did not know exactly who was at home and who may have had visitors at the time of the explosion, so they could not provide an exact number of people considered missing.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation by the county fire marshal's office along with borough and county law enforcement. Imbarlina warned that the investigation would be a “slow and long process" that would include a lot of forensic testing and could last “months if not years.”
Michael Huwar, president of Peoples Gas, said the company's checks for gas leaks underground and in the air as well as the consistent pressure verified at regulation stations indicates that “our system was operating as designed.”
Gas and electric service was shut off as a precaution, and officials said Sunday a plan was in place to begin restoring service with electric power expected to be returned to all but a few residences, officials said.
George Emanuele, who lives three houses down from the home that exploded, told the Tribune-Review that he and a neighbor went to the home before the fire got out of control, where they found a man laying in the backyard and dragged him away from the scene.
Rafal Kolankowski, who lives a few houses away, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the explosion broke the windows in his house and knocked him and his wife to the ground.
After recovering and checking on his son, Kolankowski went outside and a woman told him another woman had been upstairs and a man was in the basement. The other woman later emerged covered in white ash, but the individual in the basement had not yet exited, he said.
“It’s just tragic, I mean, it looks like a war zone — it looks like a bomb hit our neighborhood and it’s just unfortunate,” Kolankowski said. “I was just with some of the neighbors yesterday, right, and now this happens.”
Jeremy Rogers, who lives two doors down, told the paper he had been out shopping when he got an alert about a problem at his house and saw "all sorts of stuff flying around.” His family was able to get out safely and he was allowed to go inside quickly to rescue his dog, although he could not locate the family's three cats.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he and the first lady were “praying for the families” affected and promised them that “as you rebuild, we will have your back.”
