POTTSTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the Pottstown house explosion that killed four children and their grandmother and seriously injured the kids’ parents last week.
The home on Hale Street was completely leveled on the evening of May 26, while neighboring houses sustained varying degrees of damage. Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the blast.
Officials from the Pottstown Licensing and Inspections Department are continuing to go door-to-door to check the structural integrity of the homes near the blast site.
“We knocked on doors and our L&I people went in to see if people had cracks in their homes,” said Pottstown Fire Chief Frank Hand. “Our fire department members were inspecting the exterior, looking for broken windows. As you can see behind me, there’s debris on roofs.”
Steph Leonetti and Rebecca Scott’s house, which is right behind where the explosion happened, had significant damage.
“There’s chunks of roof and house in our backyard,” he said, adding that the explosion left holes in several rooms in his house.
“There’s a gap in the wall in the bedroom. There’s a gap in the wall in my fiancee’s office. There’s a gap in the stairs. Along with that, all the nails blew through the paint, so from the rafters and ceiling.”
The couple, like other neighbors, have been staying with family and friends as they wait for inspections to finish and for their insurance to get involved.
“There’s a significant amount of damage,” Leonetti added, “not to mention the cleanup we’re gonna have to get done for the outside. It’s kind of unmeasurable right now.”
As Leonetti tries to sort everything out, he still can’t wrap his head around the loss of his neighbors, especially the four kids who he saw playing outside every day.
Tristan White, 8; Nehemiah White, 10; Jeremiah White, 12; and Alana Wood, 13; were killed in the explosion, along with grandmother Francine White, 67.
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“They were all nice and they all said hi and were the sweetest little kids that could be,” Leonetti said.
“The site of this blast is utterly heartbreaking,” said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, who stopped by on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Casey and Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh. “The loss of life, the loss of a grandmother, the loss of four children — four young children. I don’t have good words for it. It’s heartbreaking.”
“We watched [the family] work so hard to clear out all the weeds and all the overgrown places in the yard to make it a safe, special place for their kids to play,” recalled Scott.
“We still have not been given any sort of timeline as for how long the work is gonna take to repair it. So for now, we’re still without a home,” she added.
The community has been rallying around the family. The Foundation for Pottstown Education, the nonprofit arm of the Pottstown School District, raised $15,000, according to a school official. A GoFundMe set up by a relative has raised nearly $40,000 as of Thursday morning.
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The cause of the blast has yet to be determined as investigators continue to sort through the evidence. PECO said the property was not connected to its natural gas service.
“There has been speculation about the cause of this explosion. Our investigation continues, and to date, we have not found evidence that PECO’s natural gas caused this incident,” the company said in a statement.
Some of the residents said they have been smelling gas in the neighborhood, but both the fire department and PECO found no leaks when they responded to prior reports.
In a statement from AmeriGas regarding a propane tank at the site of the explosion, the company said, “We are devastated to hear of this tragic news and our hearts and prayers go out to this family and community. We are cooperating fully with authorities as they investigate the cause of the incident. According to our records, there is an AmeriGas propane tank at the home. We look forward to seeing the results of the investigation once finalized.”
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