Four people died and three others were injured when a house exploded on a suburban Pennsylvania street on Saturday, spreading flames to several nearby homes, shattering windows and collapsing walls, authorities said.
One person was reported missing Saturday night, officials said.
Police responded to a report of a house explosion in Plum, a suburb of Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania, just east of Pittsburgh, about 10 a.m.
Three homes on Rustic Ridge Drive were leveled by the blast, and about a dozen others were damaged, county officials said at a press conference Saturday night. The cause of the explosion is not clear.
The Plum Borough Police Department, which did not release the names or ages of the victims, said two of the injured were in stable condition and a third was in critical condition Saturday night.
Steve Imberlina, assistant chief for Allegheny County Emergency Services, said at two news conferences Saturday that authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion. He said representatives from several gas companies were on the scene Saturday and cooperating with investigators.
“We’re asking anyone who isn’t in the neighborhood to please stay away and let everyone do their jobs,” Chief Imberlina said.
Photos and videos of the scene showed rows of scattered homes billowing out smoke. Firefighters waded through piles of wood and ash.
In the footage obtained by WTAE, a local news station, hears an explosion in the quiet of a nearby baseball game. In another clip, a doorbell camera appeared to capture the moment of the explosion, which sent fire and smoke into the sky.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said At X, formerly known as Twitter, his administration and the state’s Emergency Management Agency are “coordinating and supporting county and local emergency responders.”
