US

‘Looks Like A War Zone’: House Explosion Kills 5, Injures Several Others

[Screenshot/YouTube/NBC News]

Font Size:

Five people were killed and several more injured Saturday after a house explosion in Pennsylvania destroyed three buildings and damaged a dozen others, officials say.

At approximately 10:23 a.m., Allegheny County officials were alerted to a house explosion that had set fire to multiple other homes in the area. The scope of the damage and the fire required the assistance of 18 different fire departments and officials from both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Crews worked to not only extinguish the flames and rescue victims but to secure nearby gas lines.

“First responders from the police and fire department arrived on scene and reported that there were people trapped under debris and that it appeared as if one house had exploded, and two others were engulfed in fire. Multiple other homes were damaged with windows blown out,” Allegheny County spokesperson Amie Downs stated, according to WTAE News.

Emergency responders identified that five people were unaccounted for and began rescue efforts once the scene was secured. Officials found and recovered five bodies from the scene. Though the victims have not yet been identified, officials have stated they include four adults and one adolescent. (RELATED: Massive House Explosion Kills 3 People, Damages Dozens Of Homes)

Video footage captured from a doorbell camera shows a massive fireball erupting, sending debris in all directions in an otherwise serene neighborhood.

“I’ve been to six house explosions in Plum, and this is the worst I’ve seen in 47 years or 48 years, the worst one, just the amount of damage,” James Sims, chief of the Holiday Park Volunteer Fire Department and emergency management coordinator for Plum, told WTAE news.

Rafal Kolankowski, a neighbor, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that the power of the explosion broke the windows of his home and knocked him and his wife to the ground.

“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 stated, adding that nails, debris and glass everywhere.

“I was just with some of the neighbors yesterday, right, and now this happens. The houses can be fixed. But when you lose a life like this, obviously it’s tragic,” he continued.

Officials are still investigating the cause of the explosion.

“Our crews continue to work and coordinate with the Allegheny County Fire Marshal, who is leading the investigation. As a precaution, we shut off gas service to about 50 neighborhood homes. We will continue to update our customers on when we believe gas will be restored,” a representative from Peoples, the natural gas company, stated, according to the Post-Gazette.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel