Five killed in Pennsylvania house explosion

[Batman]

Four adults and one teenager were killed, three homes were destroyed, and 57 firefighters were treated for minor issues after a house exploded in Plum, Pennsylvania in Allegheny County on Saturday.
One of the stories on this quoted a longtime fire chief as saying he'd seen six house explosions in that town? Is this a fairly common occurrence in that area?

Plum house explosion: 5 dead, including 1 child

 

[JakeandElwood]

That video is astonishing.

 

[Azrael]

coal country

About Coal Mine Methane | US EPA

 

[dixiehack]

coal country

About Coal Mine Methane | US EPA

My first thought.

 

[Batman]

coal country

About Coal Mine Methane | US EPA

That makes sense, and something along those lines crossed my mind as well. Didn't quite reckon houses randomly exploding from it was common, though.

 

[Azrael]

That makes sense, and something along those lines crossed my mind as well. Didn't quite reckon houses randomly exploding from it was common, though.

Could just as easily be a meth lab or a bad gas line, I suppose.

But six home explosions seems kinda systemic.

 

[Batman]

Could just as easily be a meth lab or a bad gas line, I suppose.

But six home explosions seems kinda systemic.

To be fair, the chief who said that has worked in the county for almost 50 years. But still, one random house explosion in what I presume is a pretty small community is the kind of thing you remember for a long time. Six, even over that long a period, is something where you might stop and say, "Wait, why does this seem to happen every eight or 10 years?"

 

[DanOregon]

How were so many firefighters injured? Were they on the scene? What were people still doing in the house?

 

[maumann]

Hard to tell from that video, but I saw an aerial view of the cul de sac. The pressure wave from the explosion flattened the houses on either side. Unless they smelled gas, they had zero chance of escape. For a Saturday morning, it's lucky the number of fatalities wasn't much higher.

There was a similar house explosion about a mile from us two summers ago. The owner of a rental cabin came up to check on his property and unfortunately for him, the propane tank had been leaking. As soon as he entered the place, it detonated.

We get a lot of low-level terrain fighter jet training, and based on the concussion, I initially thought one of them had gone down. I can't imagine living somewhere where houses blow up on a semi-regular basis.

Too bad the SCTV Farm Film Report didn't have exclusive coverage.

 

[Batman]

How were so many firefighters injured? Were they on the scene? What were people still doing in the house?

I think they said they were minor heat-related issues. Still seems like a lot, though.

 

[Hermes]

Also a reminder to have a plug-in explosive gas monitor in your home, even if you have a natural gas line that is no longer in service. Fittings fail.

Looks like an explosion in 2008 in that community came when a line got dented years before and then failed.

I have an all-electric home, but still have three dual-monitor devices for carbon monoxide and explosive gases mounted both high and low because we have a dormant natural gas hook-up to the house.

 

[playthrough]

Mercy. Reminds me of a very bad case on the southside of Indy a decade ago, when two losers conspired to blow up their house for insurance money. They put a device in the microwave with a timer and were long gone when it went off at night. Trashed the entire neighborhood and killed a couple next door. The losers and one other conspirator will rot in jail.